An Arc to the Past Special: Winter Harvest Day
by Takeshi1225
Summary: A holiday prequel to An Arc to the Past, centered around Jaune and Ruby's family celebrating the most loved holiday of the year, Winter Harvest Day. The day of love, togetherness, respect for each other and acceptance of your fellow man, woman and Faunus. A nice little one-shot of the feelings of the holiday season. Happy Holidays and Enjoy!


An Arc to the Past Special: Winter Harvest

A Holiday Special. Christmas Inspired, but still a nice little holiday story for Lancaster fans. Albeit perhaps a little bittersweet.

Enjoy.

 **Winter Harvest**

The horizon of Patch started to shine a bit with the Sun rising.

In the cozy cabin of the Arc/Rose family, our favorite couple were sleeping in their bed.

Jaune was lightly snoring with his arms out. Ruby was sleeping on Jaune's left arm, resting on her right side. The Sun started to rise. Light shined through Jaune and Ruby's bedroom window. Hitting Jaune's face, the Arc groaned with annoyance. Out of instinct, he grabbed the blanket and raised it over his and Ruby's head.

Ruby moaned with appreciation.

However, it wasn't the Sun that was their alarm clock.

The door to their room slammed open.

"It's here! It's here!" Angel cheered as she ran in with her brother, Eon.

The Arc/Rose siblings hopped onto their parent's bed and started hopping on it.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Eon chanted with excitement.

"Wake up!" Angel followed her little brother's lead with equal excitement.

Jaune moaned.

"Five more minutes." Jaune said.

"No way! It's Winter Harvest Day! Get up, dad!" Eon shouted.

"Please be sweet to me just this year." Jaune said.

"You always say that daddy." Angel said hopping onto her bum and now sitting cross legged while her brother continued hopping on the bed.

"And have you ever listened?" Jaune countered.

"No, but why start now?" Eon said, continuing to hop on his parents' bed.

"He's right about that." Ruby said, pushing the covers off of herself. "They're only young once." Ruby said.

Jaune sighed. He sat up, pushing the covers off of himself. He looked to see his family in their PJs.

Ruby had her hair a bit longer than when they were at Beacon. She wore a red tank top on with the face of a corgi over the chest, and she wore white long pants with red hearts on it, and a night mask, now pulled to atop her head, with a design of a pair of silver eyes on it.

Angel, basically a six year old version of Ruby, wore a white with grey flower print pajama combo.

Eon, who looked a lot like his own father, but with more of his mother's face shape, wore a black shirt with cartoon knight on it with the sword raised high and a pair of blue pajama shorts.

"You're still wearing that?!" Ruby exclaimed.

Jaune looked down to see his favorite pajama shirt. It was a gift from Nora, which was a white shirt with a chibi Ruby's face knitted onto it that had a pair of red bunny ears on it. He also wore blue pajama pants with a large print of his family's emblem covering the majority of his right leg.

"What? I love it." Jaune said with a shrug.

"Well I don't! I told you to get rid of it." Ruby said with a pout and arms crossed.

"Why does mom hate that shirt so much?" Eon asked as he finally stopped bouncing on the bed.

"She's just embarrassed because her cute little face it printed on my chest." Jaune said.

"With adorable bunny ears! So cute." Angel said with a smile.

"See? They love it." Jaune said with a superior smirk.

"Give it here." Ruby demanded.

"No." Jaune said, leaning away.

"Give it!" Ruby ordered, trying to grab the shirt, but Jaune hopped out of bed. "Jaune!"

"No!" Jaune exclaimed as he started running from Ruby, who gave chase.

Angel and Eon laughed at their parents' childish nature. Jaune quickly took off his shirt and raised it up high.

"No fair~! You're taller than me!" Ruby complained trying to hop up with her arm out to get the shirt.

"It's called using your strengths, hon. Strategy 101." Jaune said with a smirk. Ruby groaned with a pout as she then hopped onto Jaune's torso, wrapping her legs around her waist and reached her hand up, with her fingers tracing over the cloth of the shirt. "Keep away!" Jaune exclaimed as he threw his shirt over to his kids.

"Got it!" Angel said as she caught the shirt.

"Make a break for it!" Eon shouted as he and his sister hopped off the bed and ran out the room laughing all the way.

"Drat!" Ruby said with annoyance as she hopped off of Jaune. "That was a dirty move." Ruby said with a pout and her fists pressed against her hips.

"So long as that shirt lives another day, I do not care how unfair I was." Jaune said with a smug smile and shrug as he walked over to the window. Opening it up, he pressed his hands against the windowsill and took in a deep breath of the fresh morning air. Jaune shivered a bit, hugging himself from feeling the cold air. "Probably shouldn't have done this shirtless." Jaune said.

Outside was very beautiful. A perfect white Winter Harvest Day. The ground below covered in snow, along with snow on the trees. It all looked like a nice big blanket, and he loved it. However, what Jaune didn't love was the giant wall at the distance, built to protect Patch.

"I really hate that wall." Jaune said, placing his hands back firmly onto the windowsill.

"I do too, but you know how it is in the world right now." Ruby said walking over, wrapping her arms around Jaune's arm and resting her head against the side of his shoulder. They both stared out to view the nice sunshine and the snowy day. "The rest looks perfect though." Ruby said.

"Can't argue with you there." Jaune said with a shrug.

They both stayed in silence for a while, just enjoying the view and each other's company.

"Well… better get Summer and prepare those piping hot Harvest Day baked goods the kids always love." Ruby said as she separated from Jaune. Jaune yawned as he stretched his arms up and followed Ruby. "Oh no. You're not coming." Ruby said with her hand up, causing Jaune to blink at her in confusion. "Not until you shave that beard." Ruby said, pointing to Jaune's jawline.

"It's a stubble." Jaune said.

"I don't care. To me it's a beard and I want you to shave today." Ruby said.

"Oh come on, Rubes. It's a holiday." Jaune whined.

"Exactly. You should look nice and clean for a holiday." Ruby said with her hands on her hips.

"And what if I don't want to shave?" Jaune asked with his arms crossed and bottom lip out.

"Then I guess you don't want to have chocolate chip croissants for breakfast." Ruby said walking away.

"Oh that is cold." Jaune said pointing at Ruby, who stuck her tongue out at him, before walking out the bedroom. Jaune sighed, shaking his head with his hands on his hips. "How did I marry such a cold child?" Jaune rhetorically asked. He suddenly developed a somber smile. 'Guess you'd be proud of her, Ice Queen.' Jaune thought with a sad smile.

He turned his head to see two pictures on the dresser of the bedroom. They were the pictures of his and Ruby's old teams from Beacon. Jaune walked over and looked to the one on the right, which was of Team RWBY. He looked to the picture, of when they were so young. He stared at Weiss and Blake with sad eyes.

Closing his eyes, his attention then went to the picture on the left, which was that of his old team, Team JNPR.

He took the picture in his hand, bringing it up as he stared at it. He looked to the images of his friends with melancholic eyes.

Pyrrha… Nora… Ren…

He missed them all so much.

Jaune sighed.

"Happy Winter Harvest Day, you guys." Jaune said, placing the picture back onto the dresser. "Well… better go start the day." Jaune said as he walked into his bathroom.

!

!

After a quick shave, Jaune headed downstairs where his family was waiting. Ruby was currently humming while baking cookies, and Summer, the little ginger red head with blue eyes, was sitting in her high chair right next to the table, waving one of her ring toys that had those little beads in them to make noise in one hand, and was squeezing her cute little squeaky corgi toy in the other. Her pajama was a white shirt with a pink heart on the chest and pink shorts. Funny, she kind of looks like Nora sometimes; I mean the hair is one thing, but the PJs reminded Jaune of his old teammate's attire.

Turn his sights over to where the T.V. was, he saw Angel and Eon on the very large black couch watching Winter Harvest Specials. As Angel was watching, Eon glanced to the presents. He tried to slowly sneak away, but one turn of the head from his sister, complete with narrowed eyes and small growl, Eon was back on the couch being a 'good boy'.

Jaune couldn't help, but chuckle at his kids' antics. Jaune walked over to help Ruby cook.

"You know, I remember that we used to be the ones to wake them up for the first three years since Angel came around." Jaune said with a smirk as he grabbed an apron.

"That was before she finally got the idea of what Winter Harvest Day was and then got her brother into the hype." Ruby said with a smile. Ruby noticed Jaune grab some oven mitts. "What are you doing?" Ruby asked.

"… Helping out with the cooking." Jaune said as if it was obvious.

"Nuh uh, not yet. The table still needs to be set for breakfast, and I already started making the goods, and you're the only adult in the house, so~-"

"I get it, I get it. Until Angel turns nine I have to set up the table every Winter Harvest. I understand." Jaune said as he put the mitts onto the kitchen counter.

"Nine~? I thought I wouldn't start until eleven." Angel whined as she stood up on the couch and turned to her parents' direction. Eon tried to slip away to get to the presents, but one turn of the head from a stern looking Angel, complete with small growl, put him back into his previous spot again out of scared instinct.

"Just don't want to spoil you sweetie." Jaune said as he took some napkins from the napkin holder to place them on the dining table.

Angel whined with a pout and put on the puppy dog eyes look.

"Don't look this way dad, she's putting on the look." Eon said.

"Thank you, son." Jaune said, thanking his son for the heads up. Angel's sad puppy dog look was too much for Jaune to handle. Instant surrender.

"You tattletale." Angel called her brother with an annoyed look.

"I probably wouldn't have noticed if I was busy opening presents right now." Eon said with a dull look as his eyes looked to the side, ignoring his elder sister's annoyed look with her fists to her hips.

"Sibling fights. The memories." Ruby said with a smile, remembering the good old times with her older sister Yang. Ruby put on her oven mitts and opened up the oven to put a large tray of cookies inside.

"Why are the cookies always first? Wouldn't it be better to cook them last?" Jaune questioned as he then went for the silverware.

"No. Because~ I'm the cook and I say cookies now, not later." Ruby said as she closed the oven door.

"That's why mom's the best." Angel said with a smile, looking to her mother, who started the oven and delivered a wink and thumbs up to her eldest daughter.

'Kiss up.' Jaune and Eon thought with their eyes rolling.

After finishing setting up the table, Jaune helped out with the cooking.

Summer looked to her parents, who were busy, and her brother and sister to see them still watching T.V. She did not like this. No one was paying attention to her. Summer started to whine with her eyes getting teary. Jaune and Ruby looked to her.

"Oh~, my poor baby." Ruby said, stopping what she was doing with her hands over her heart.

"She's only doing that for attention." Eon said.

"Well is doesn't matter. She's still a baby who just wants her mother, so that's what I'm giving her." Ruby said as she walked over, grabbed her daughter, took her out of her high chair and hugged her close and gently, easing Summer, who returned with her own little hug.

"You know your biscuits are going to start burning." Jaune said, causing Ruby to give him a 'having a moment here' look. "Don't look at me like that, I only have two arms." Jaune defended.

Ruby sighed. She really couldn't argue with that logic. Ruby walked over to a pink and white spaceship shaped baby walker and put Summer inside it.

"Sorry, sweetie, you'll have to wait a bit longer. Please be patient." Ruby said to her daughter, before kissing her on the forehead and walking back to finish cooking.

Summer blinked her eyes, watching her mother walk back to the kitchen cooking area. Summer looked to the plastic control panels for her spaceship walker. She placed her squeaky corgi toy on the side and then grabbed the lever of her controls and moved it up and down, then she smacked a button a few times causing it to squeal while she moved her noisy ring in her other hand. After a few whacks and swings, Summer stop as she got bored.

Eon and Angel continued watching T.V. together in silence.

Eon glance to his sister from time to time. So far she has been watching him like a hawk. He had to think of something to get her of his back. However, that is, of course, very difficult. She's always been on his case since he was a baby. Then again, he is a risk taker who tends to find trouble and get into trouble. Like that time he crawled into a picnic basket when he was a baby, got covered in sauces and ingredients of food he squished and wandered closer to the forest where a nearby wolf caught the scent of the food on him, and Angel was the one who found hip and ran away with him with the wolf following until their parents and their aunt scared it away. To this day, their mother still blames their great uncle and grandpa from making a scene that lead to everyone's attention being on them for like thirty second. Not a bad record time for him to get into trouble and he was only like seven months.

Good times. Goo~d times.

Eon looked to the presents around the special blue pine tree that Angel's old godmother Weiss had crafted herself with a normal blue pine tree and did something with what their parents call… gilfs? Well whatever, the point is, is that the blue pine tree lasts longer than a lot because of something that has to do with time.

Eon scratched his chin to think of what to do. His goal: the presents. The obstacle: His elder sister. The objective: Distract his sister so he can get to the presents and at least get lucky to open one of them. The question: How?

'Maybe if I… hmm… if I get off the couch, she'll know what I'm up to. I got to think of something to do while staying on the couch. I don't think changing the channel to something she really likes will work, and I don't have much to work with here. Darn it. Why are things always against me?' Eon thought with a frown.

Suddenly he felt something hit the couch. Eon looked down to see his younger sister, Summer, bumping into the couch with her walker. When she noticed she had her brother's attention, she lifted her arms up, making noises. Eon blinked his eyes, staring down at his sister. He leaned down and picked her up out of the walker and seated her in between him and Angel. Angel smiled at her baby sister and rubbed the top of her head affectionately, before looking back to the television program.

"Oh, I love this part." Angel said with a bright smile.

"Why is it they play the same special at the exact same morning and time, every year?" Eon questioned with boredom evident on his face as he leaned onto his side.

"Because it's the best and they know it." Angel said, still smiling and now had her arms crossed.

"It's about a magical snowman who wants to be human so he can know the feelings we have for Winter Harvest Day." Eon said, resting his cheek against his hand.

"And that's not special to you?" Angel questioned with a raised eyebrow, pout and fists to her hips.

"Oh it's special. E-Specially stupid." Eon said with a dull look.

"Why do you always have to be so mean? You're such a downer." Angel said, annoyed with her brother.

"I'm not a downer, I'm… uh… hey dad, what's that word that you said Gruncle Qrow and I have in common? I think it starts with a 'B'."

"Blunt." Jaune answered.

"Yeah, I'm blunt." Eon said.

"And a downer." Angel said with narrowed eyes and arms crossed.

Summer looked between her elder siblings, not knowing what was going on. Well what can you say? She is only a few months old. She didn't understand proper speech yet. She suddenly started waving her ring around, making noise.

Eon scoffed. He really wished he had a brother sometimes. Sisters are so dull.

However, when he caught Summer staring at him, he got an idea. A smirk appeared on his face. He looked down to Summer's walker to see her squeaky corgi toy on it, left alone. Eon reached down, grabbed it and tossed it away.

Summer looked with wide eyes as her corgi toy was on the floor far from herself. Summer's bottom lip started to quiver. She then started to cry, alerting the others.

"What's wrong Summer?" Angel asked. Summer cried as she pointed her ring in a certain direction and started waving it around frantically. Angel followed where she was pointing to see her squeaky corgi toy on the floor. "I'll get it." Angel said as she got off the couch and went over to get the doll.

Eon took advantage of the situation. Finally getting off the couch to sneak toward the presents, but remembered that Summer was still on the couch. He remembered the last time he left her alone on some furniture. Boy did he get a smack and a yell for that. Grabbing his baby sister, he put her back into her walker and hurried over to unwrap his first present.

Angel knelt down in front of the corgi toy and picked it up in her hand.

"I wonder how it got all the way over…" Angel gasped, before her eyes narrowed. "Eon." Angel turned to see her brother over at the presents.

A very excited Eon knelt down in front of one of his presents and grabbed it. When he was ready to open it, he was hit in the back of the head.

"Ow! What the-?!" Eon rubbed the back of his head as he looked down to see Summer's corgi doll. Eon looked to see Angel glaring at him with her bottom lip out, while Summer was laughing at her brother's pain, hopping in her walker with amusement. "Hey, that wasn't nice! Mom~, Angel threw Summer's toy at me~." Eon whined.

"He started it! He threw Summer's toy so he could sneak away to open the presents before breakfast." Angel said.

Ruby sighed while Jaune looked to his kids for a moment.

"Play nice kids, please. It's Winter Harvest Day." Ruby said.

"I don't know where he gets that troublesome streak from." Jaune said as he and Ruby continued cooking.

"Don't look at me." Ruby said, but that is what Jaune did with a raised eyebrow and half-lidded eyes. "Has the thought ever occurred to you that he might get it from you?" Ruby countered with a stern expression.

The two stayed silent for a moment, before they broke out into laughter.

"I don't how you did that with a straight face." Jaune said with a smile, shaking his head.

"And not once had I ever practice." Ruby said with her own smile.

"Oh, now that is impressive." Jaune said with a smirk.

Eon slowly creeped his hands over and grabbed his present.

"I hear one rip and you can forget about having mini-colored marshmallows in your hot chocolate young man." Ruby said with a stern expression.

"Aw~." Eon whined as he moved away from his present.

"Good one." Jaune complimented with a smile.

"It helps since the kids have my sweet tooth." Ruby said with a proud smile.

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing." Jaune said.

"Just for that, you'll be the last one to get a cookie." Ruby said with her arms crossed and head held high.

"Oh come on." Jaune said.

A ding was heard.

"Cookies are done." Ruby said with a smile, opening up the oven door.

"Yay~!" Angel and Eon cheered with grins and fist thrust into the air, while Summer hopped in her walker, following her elder siblings' lead of excitement.

"Oh come on Ruby, take a joke." Jaune said as Ruby took out the tray of cookies, only to earn another stick of the tongue from his wife. "You can be so mean." Jaune said with his arms crossed.

"Hey, you married me." Ruby said with a shrug as she placed the cookies down on the counter. Jaune smirked as he then wrapped his arms around Ruby waist.

"I sure did. And I don't regret it." Jaune said with a smile as he then started kissing Ruby's neck.

"Stop it. You're not playing fair." Ruby said with a smile as she giggled at the tickling sensation at her husband kissing her neck.

"Ew~." Angel and Eon said in unison with disgust, while Sumer just blinked her eyes as she continued to watch her parents.

"Gross, can't you do that somewhere else?" Angel asked, not wanting to see her parents get lovey-dovey.

"I still have nightmares." Eon whispered as he covered his eyes.

"What?" Angel looked to her brother with confusion.

"Okay, okay, enough with that." Ruby said playfully with a smile as she managed to get out of Jaune's grasp. "Just start making your famous chocolate chip croissants."

"No need for a please." Jaune said with a smile as he started to make his favorite part of breakfast. Ruby grabbed the plates of food they made, the usual breakfast stuff. Eggs, which were Sunnyside, scrabbled and omelet, sausages, bacon, French toast and waffles.

Suddenly the door to the cabin house was kicked in.

"Hey-Oh! Guess who's here!"

"Kids, grandpa's here~!"

"Aunt Yang! Grandpa!" Eon cheered as Angel squealed with joy. The kids ran over to their aunt and grandfather.

Yang was dressed in the same clothes she always wore since her trip to find them at Haven, but she also wore a Santa hat on.

Taiyang was dressed in a full Santa Claus outfit and had a whole bag lifted over his back.

As Eon and Angel ran up to them, Taiyang put the bag down, then knelt down and hugged his grandkids.

"Hey kids, Happy Winter Harvest Day." Taiyang said with a beaming smile as he hugged his grandkids close. Taiyang still looked pretty good for his age. Just some white hair on the sideburns and had a bit more hair for his stubble.

Yang smirked at the sight. Zwei came in with a pair of deer antlers on his head. The corgi yawned.

"Guess no love for us, huh old buddy?" Yang said to Zwei.

"Are those… real deer antlers?" Jaune asked, pointing at Zwei's new pair.

"Dad glued them to his head." Yang said as she walked into the house.

"Well, it still doesn't beat mailing him. However the heck he does it." Jaune said.

Summer had traveled to where the presents were, still in her walker, but her target was her corgi toy, which was on the ground. Summer started to whine as she tried reaching down to get her favorite toy.

Yang walked over, knelt down to grab the toy and handed it to Summer, who then started to chew on it with her gums.

"Summer! Look how much you're growing!" Taiyang said, walking over to his youngest grandchild and picked her up to hold her. "Who's a cutie? Who's such a cutie~? You are! Yes you are." Taiyang said in baby talk as he rubbed his nose against Summer's making her giggle, while her corgi toy remained hanging from her mouth.

"You know she's not a dog." Yang said standing right back up. Taiyang suddenly blew against Summer's belly, making her laugh out loud at the tickling sensation, causing her corgi toy to fall to the ground, with a squeak upon impact. Zwei walked over and laid on his belly. Looking over to the corgi doll, Zwei opened his mouth and went to put the doll in his mouth. "Oh no you don't." Yang said, kneeling down and taking the corgi doll in hand. "That's not **your** chew toy." Yang said with a smirk. Zwei replied with a groan that sounded like a 'whatever' in dog language. Yang then caught the scent of something good. "Oh~, is that bacon? Because I worked up a hunger for some meat." Yang said with a grin.

"Just wait a moment Yang, Jaune and I aren't finished yet." Ruby said, placing the plates on the large table.

"Plus, Qrow's not here yet." Jaune added.

"Oh come on. Just a nibble. Besides, who knows when that old Qrow will show up?" Yang said with her arms crossed. Suddenly a crow hit the window and fell to the ground. "Never mind." Yang said.

"The one drawback of that power." Jaune said as he then laughed.

Ruby walked over and opened the window. The bird flew away only to make a U-turn and head back towards the window, luckily with no glass this time, the bird landed on the windowsill and instantly transformed into a man.

"Ta-dah!" Qrow said with a grin.

"You really got to stop that stunt every year. As if your brain cells need to suffer more." Jaune said with a smile.

"Well it wouldn't happen if you guys keep the window open every year, like I've been saying for the past five years now." Qrow said hopping off the windowsill.

"I think it's funny." Angel said with a smile and giggle.

"Totally cool to turn back into a guy too." Eon said with his own smile.

"See? The kids like it. That's why it's worth it." Qrow said taking out his flask that had a design of candy canes on it.

"Seriously Qrow? Can't you put that away for the kids?" Taiyang scolded his old friend with a glare.

"Kids, you know what this is?" Qrow asked.

"Silly juice, right?" Eon asked.

"No, it's got candy canes. It's eggnog!" Angel answered with a smile.

"That's right. Nothing bad about eggnog." Qrow said with a smile as he drank his 'eggnog'.

"Oh Qrow." Taiyang shook his head.

"Give him points for creativity." Yang said to her father.

"I refuse to do so. For my grandkids." Taiyang said with his head held high.

"Grandpappy of the year." Yang said with a smirk and arms crossed.

Eon grabbed the bag and tried pulling it into their house, but it sure was a task.

"Wait… gifts! I can just crawl inside." Eon said with a smile as he opened the bag and was about to crawl inside, but his older sister grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away. "Aw~, you're such a pooper." Eon said with a pout.

"It's pronounce party pooper." Angel said.

"Great, now you also ruin parties. How fun." Eon said with his arms crossed.

"The boy's getting cheekier every day." Qrow said.

"I blame Yang." Jaune said.

"Well I blame you for introducing him to sarcasm, Vomit Boy." Yang countered back.

"Yang please… he's Vomit Man now." Ruby said as she placed more food on the table, with one of them being a large plate of her piping hot cookies.

"Thanks Ruby, you're such a great partner." Jaune said sarcastically with an eye roll.

"See, that's what I'm talking about." Yang said, pointing at Jaune. A ding was heard.

"Croissants are done." Jaune said.

"Sweet!" Eon cheered as he then licked the hand his sister was using to hold his collar, effectively forcing her to release him.

"Ew, gross! That's nasty!" Angel complained as she tried to clean her brother's saliva off her hand by rubbing it against her pajama shirt. Eon ignored his sister and rushed over to his place at the table.

"Dad, can we have pancakes this year?" Eon asked. Ruby, Yang, Qrow and Taiyang froze at this as their eyes then looked to Jaune. Jaune had a momentary look of somber, but he was facing away from his kids. "Please~." Eon begged.

Jaune slowly smiled.

"Sure, son. Anything for you." Jaune said, looking to his son.

"Can I~ open a present while I wait?" Eon asked with a hopeful grin.

"Nice try." Jaune said with a smirk. Eon just shrugged with an innocent look.

Ruby softly smiled at Jaune, while Yang and Taiyang smiled brightly at him. Qrow just raised his flask, toasting to Jaune, before taking another swig of his eggnog.

After a bit of time, breakfast was finally served and everyone sat down to eat together as a family for another Winter Harvest Day.

They talked about how things were going like they always did every year.

Eon boasted that he was on his best behavior this year. Angel looked to him with a dull look, but she couldn't deny that, he indeed was. That wasn't much though. Eon's been known to get into trouble to prove how manly and cool he is as an Arc and a Rose, and just to get what he wants at times. Things were really bad when he was two. The dreaded terrible twos.

Taiyang talked about how his new year of teaching was actually taking a toll on him since he's basically found the 'Yang' of the generation he was teaching so far. That caused Ruby and Jaune to shiver. They knew how Yang was back in the day. All rowdy and gung-ho. They could only imagine Taiyang's mental exercise with this kid. In fact Yang had a good laugh when she heard that the kid actually managed to make the statue of Signal's founder look like a perfect crossdresser. Then again, she had seen it all over the network that's to kids taking pictures and recording it on their scrolls.

Speaking of Yang, she spoke about her latest kickass adventures. She had Angel and Eon's undivided attention. The two always looked up to their Aunt Yang. Actually it mirrored Ruby and Yang's admiration for their Uncle Qrow to a T. Yang talked about how she kicked the crap out of Hunters, Scourges, Dust Devils and even a Provectus. Angel and Eon were so blown away by their Aunt's tales of awesomeness. Plus they thought it was so super hardcore that she took on the Provectus inside an active volcano. Back in the day, Jaune and Ruby would call bullshit, but with the past adventures they've been on with her as adults, especially with Jaune being forced to have Yang along upon Ruby's behalf, they couldn't really call that since they saw firsthand what one misadventure with Yang Xiao Long can have.

Qrow said he was happy to be free like a bird again. No pun intended. Now with Oscar taking over as Beacon's new headmaster, Qrow was free to roam around the world again. He had some nasty encounters himself, but with more than just Grimm. Bandits, outlaws, extremists taking the law into their own hands, the works. Angel and Eon were still more impressed with Yang's adventures, but Qrow understood. He's getting old and he had to pass the torch sooner or later, and that was handed to none other than his hot headed, fiery spirited blonde niece. Nonetheless, Qrow was enjoying his life as a free bird. Once again… no pun intended.

Jaune smiled as he looked around the table to see his family enjoying themselves. He closed his eyes as he remembered his side of the family. The Arcs. It's been so long since he's seen any of them. With mom and dad passing, nothing really kept the Arc siblings together anymore. They all separated and went their own ways. Surprisingly only two of the siblings settled down. That was him and his younger sister, Bethany. He visited her from time to time, but with her living all the way in Vacuo, she never really got to see her nieces and nephew. The other siblings, he hasn't seen in ages. He wonders if they're all still with him in the land of the living. Shaking his head of the grim thought, Jaune opened his eyes again. He then felt a hand on his own, making him look to see Ruby giving him a gentle smile. Jaune smiled back at her. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

"Ew, seriously? At breakfast?" Eon complained.

"Ah, shut up. Moms and dads have the right to show each other love." Jaune said.

"Yeah, but could you do it some other time. I feel kind of sick seeing it too. Heck, I thought the sour milk." Yang brought up a glass of milk. "Would beat you guys to the Punch." Yang brought up Angel's glass of fruit punch. Angel ad Eon laughed.

"Good one Aunt Yang." Angel said with a grin, that Yang happily returned.

Ruby and Yang groaned at their children's belief that their aunt was a comedic genius.

"I still don't know how they actually think stuff like that is funny." Qrow whispered to Taiyang, getting a nod from his old teammate.

Summer was trying to sip more milk from her bottle, but she was getting nothing, so she pulled it away from her mouth and tried giving it a hard squeeze, causing milk to shoot out.

"Hey!" And nail a now annoyed and wet Eon on the head. "Not cool." Eon said with a frown.

"No use crying over spilled milk, son." Jaune said as he took a bite of his pancakes.

"Boo~." Was Eon's response to his father's lame joke.

!

!

After breakfast, the family finally went to open their presents.

Eon was the first to rush over and start opening. During this time, Jaune switched the channel to the yule log channel where Winter Harvest Day songs playing over the lovely sight of a yule log slowly burning in a fireplace. It was an old Arc family tradition that Jaune introduced to Ruby and the rest of her family, which they admitted was very beautiful and was then adopted by them.

Everyone sat around the tree in the living room. The adults were talking while the kids played with their gifts.

Angel was playing with what looked to be a miniature, non-lethal, version of her own mother's Crescent Rose… that came with ammo filled with gumdrops!

"It's what I've always wanted, and more!" Angel cheered with the biggest smile on her face. She then laughed with joy as she skipped away, holding her new toy scythe close to her.

"Yes! My own Excalibur." Eon cheered with a huge grin as he had his own miniature, non-lethal, version of one of his parent's weapon. "Fear me." Eon said pointing his new mini-Excalibur at Zwei. The old corgi yawned. "Fear~ me~." Eon said with narrowed eyes, aiming his mini-Excalibur closer to Zwei. The dog just then started liking his special place. "Oh come on! Seriously?" Eon whined, while the adults laughed.

"Oh by the way, Qrow, I got you this." Jaune grabbed a bottle shaped present from next to the love seat he was on with his wife carrying their youngest next to him.

"Hey, no fair, that was my idea." Yang said showing off her own bottle shaped gift for her uncle. "Save it for next year, Jauney Boy."

"Don't call me that." Jaune said with a stern expression. "And heck no, I went through a lot to get this."

"Like I don't go through a lot to get what I get either." Yang countered.

"Heads up." Jaune tossed the present to Qrow, who caught it with ease. "A hundred and fifty years old. Aged to perfection." Jaune said.

"Wha-?! Well, mine is a hundred and **eighty** years old." Yang said tossing the bottle to her uncle, who caught it.

"That's a lie." Jaune said.

"No it's not." Yang said with her arms crossed.

"Yes it is. When you lie your shoulder moves in a certain way." Jaune said.

"I do not." Yang said.

"Actually he is. Jaune told me before and I've been noticing it lately." Ruby said.

Yang narrowed her eyes at Jaune, who just smiled and shrug.

"Whatever. Mine taste better anyway." Yang said looking to the side with a pout.

Ruby and Jaune just looked to each other and shrugged. Let her have her day.

"Two for the price of one. I really am the best." Qrow said with a smirk, happily holding his bottles of liquor.

"Hmph." Taiyang crossed his arms with his eyes closed.

"Okay, I know that look. What do you want to bitch about this time?" Qrow asked.

"Seriously? No cursing in front of the kids Qrow." Taiyang said.

"Oh come on, they know better to not use those words." Qrow said.

"Actually I was planning on them when practicing with my new sword. What was that one that started with an 'A'?" Eon asked as he did a practice sword swing.

Taiyang glared at Qrow, who looked calm.

"You know he's just saying that to get on our nerves." Qrow said. "You should blame anyone, it should be Yang for teaching them a lot of bad habits."

"Hey! Don't go throwing me under the bullhead." Yang complained.

"Yeah, Aunt Yang has taught us a lot of cool things that aren't bad." Angel defended her aunt.

"Yeah, like rules are for fools, cheating is only cheating if you get caught and rolling snake eyes is easier if you used fake dice." Eon said as he continued with his practice swings.

"What have you been teaching my kids?" Jaune asked with narrowed eyes.

"Hey, don't look at me, I learned all that from him." Yang said pointing at Qrow.

"And don't look at me, because I never told her to teach them to kids. At least not until they're teens." Qrow said taking out his flask and taking another swig from his 'eggnog'.

Jaune and Taiyang looked to one another with dull eyes, then back to the vagabond-like pair.

"Well at least they have proper parental figures to look up to as well. Isn't that right Jaune?" Taiyang said, looking to his son-in-law.

"You sound a little too confident." Qrow said.

"Well it's obvious they think I'm the best." Taiyang said.

"Oh yeah? Kids, who do you think is the best? Me or you grandfather?" Qrow asked Angel and Eon.

"Grandpa." Angel and Eon answered.

"Ha!" Taiyang cheered, pointing victoriously at Qrow with a big grin on his face.

"Oh they're just saying that because you gave them tons of gifts." Qrow said.

"Still shows how much I love them." Taiyang said with a victorious smile and head held high. "What did you get them?"

"Easy. The power of choice." Qrow said with his eyes closed and head held high.

"What kind of gift is-"

"Here kids." Qrow took something out from within his coat and tossed it to his grandniece and grandnephew.

"Oh cool!" Angel cheered with a smile as she held her new gift.

"Five hundred lien?! You're the best Gruncle Qrow!" Eon cheered with a grin.

"What the?! You bribed them?!"

"I didn't bribe them. It's called giving them a gift. People give kids lien for gifts." Qrow defended.

"Yeah, but it's usually twenty lien. Do you even know what they're going to spend with that much money?" Taiyang argued.

"Not my problem anymore." Qrow said before taking another swig from his flask.

"Eon will get the biggest weapon he can, while Angel will buy out as many baked goods from one of the bakeries in town." Taiyang said.

"He's not wrong." Angel said.

"Gramps knows us." Eon said with a shrug.

"I can only imagine the bills from the hospital and dentist." Taiyang said with his arms crossed.

"You always exaggerate." Qrow said, waving off Taiyang's worries for his grandkids.

"Mom, Dad! Can we go to the festival now? Please?" Angel asked her parents.

"Oh yeah! Can we?" Eon asked as he hopped up and down.

"You'll need to take a shower first." Jaune said.

"You can go first sis. I want to keep using my new weapon. It's badass!" Eon said grabbing hold tighter of his new mini-Excalibur.

"Okay." Angel agreed as she ran off to go shower.

"Eon, don't say badass." Jaune said.

"Gruncle Qrow and Aunt Yang say it all the time. So it can't be that bad." Eon said.

"Ah ha! I rest my case." Taiyang said with his arms crossed.

"You never even had a case. You were just whining as always." Qrow said.

"It wouldn't feel like Winter Harvest Day if you two codgers didn't argue." Yang said with a smirk.

"I heard that." Eon said as he continued his practice swings.

"Hey, I'm not that old." Qrow said.

"Aren't you like nearing your sixties?" Jaune asked.

"Zip it." Qrow said with a narrowed glare.

Ruby couldn't help but giggle as Summer played with her new snow white teddy bear in her arms.

"I just love having the family over." Ruby said with a smile.

!

!

After some time getting ready, Jaune's family was bathed and dressed.

Well, all except Jaune. He needed one more thing. He came downstairs dressed in thick blue jeans and black steel toed boots that stopped halfway up the calves, and black fingerless gloves, with a black long sleeved turtle neck and white scarf in one hand and a long white jacket with golden buttons and black fur at the end of the sleeves, collar and bottom of the jacket.

Ruby was dressed with black pants, black with red lace and red soled boots, and wore a jacket similar to his, only it was black with silver buttons and red fur at the end of the sleeves, at the collar and at the bottom of the jacket, with underneath it hidden away was a red long sleeve shirt, black gloves that were fingerless for all digits, but the thumbs, and could be covered to mittens with round clothes stitched to the back that could be put on to cover the exposed fingers, and of course, despite people might saying its 'too much' she still wore her red hooded cloak. It's her thing.

Summer was in her mother's arms and she was dressed in a coat similar to her parents as well, but it was pink with only the end of the sleeves having white fur. Around her neck was a pink with white striped scarf and she had a pink beaning with white puff ball atop her head, cute white little mittens, black pants and little black boots on her feet.

Angel was dressed in a white coat with silver buttons, blue beanie atop her head, and a blue skirt with thick black stockings underneath and black boots with gold laces on, along with black gloves. She also followed her mother's lead by putting on her own white hooded cloak.

Eon was dressed in a blue coat with the Arc family emblem over the left breast, an orange scarf around his neck, thick white winter pants, black boots similar to his father's but without the steel toed part and white gloves. Yang was helping tie a holster onto him for him to put his new toy weapon onto his back like his father.

"There." Yang said with a smile as she finished tying the holster onto her nephew's back.

"Thanks Aunt Yang." Eon said with a smile as he then put on a Vytal Tournament cap.

"Oh no, it's winter time and we will be outside for a long time. You are putting on the winter hat with the ear flaps you got last year." Ruby said.

"Aw mom~, but it looks so dorky." Eon whined.

"No buts. I don't want you getting any kind of fever." Ruby said.

"But I want to wear my cap." Eon complained.

"We could just put the winter hat over this one." Yang said.

"Auntie Yang saves the day again." Eon said with a bright smile, praising his aunt.

"Won't it look stupid?" Angel asked.

"Maybe, but who cares? A styles a style, and if anyone has anything bad to say about it, I'll just give them a bigger mouth, if you catch my drift." Yang said with a smirk, cracking her fists.

"Sweet!" Eon cheered with a grin.

"No way are you going into town dressed like that." Qrow said pointing to Taiyang, still dressed in his Santa clothes.

"And why not? I do it every year when I spend time with the kids." Taiyang said.

"… You're joking."

"No I am not. I do it every year. You just never saw me, because this is around the time you leave to be Beacon's Headmaster again." Taiyang said. "Also, I still will never understand why you took that job since you were never the best role model and you hated doing paperwork."

"And I will never understand why you have no shame. Seriously, you are not going out there dressed like that." Qrow said, still pointing at Taiyang's getup.

Jaune couldn't help, but chuckle.

"Whoa, what a unique winter get up there, Vomit Boy." Yang said pointing at Jaune.

"Of course you would notice a half-naked man first." Jaune commented.

"Guilty." Yang said with a smirk and hand up.

"Angel, where did you put daddy's favorite shirt?" Jaune asked his daughter.

"Right here." Angel walked over to the love seat, lifted up one of the cushions and pulled out the shite shirt with the chibi Ruby face on it with bunny ears off the top.

"I don't believe it. It was literally right under me." Ruby said, still in disbelief that she was sitting right on top of the shirt she was trying to take away earlier.

"Oh my sweet Monty, it's still as cute as I remember it." Taiyang said with a smile, while Qrow and Yang laughed at it.

"Stop laughing!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Why? It's so cute." Yang said.

"Besides mom, as Auntie Yang would say 'you should count yourself lucky that your hubby is wearing your face to bed.'" Angel said, only causing Yang and Qrow to laugh louder, while Ruby's face turned completely red.

"That's my girl!" Yang said with a wide toothy grin, giving Angel a thumbs up that her niece gladly returned with her own wide toothy grin.

"You have corrupted my child." Ruby said to her sister with narrowed eyes.

"Make that children. Eon's not much better." Jaune said.

"Hey!"

"Oh calm down, son. You know you're a gem." Jaune said smiling to his son. Eon just crossed his arms and pouted in response.

"Here dad." Angel walked over.

"Oh no, you are not wearing that today. Especially not after sleeping in it last night." Ruby said.

"Why not? I'll just toss it into the washing machine and dryer combo we got ages ago and it'll be clean like that." Jaune emphasized his point by snapping his fingers.

"Not the point."

"Why are you so hostile right now? It's not even going to be seen. It'll be hidden under the turtleneck."

"Yeah, but I'll know it's there." Ruby said with her left fist pressed against her hip while she held Summer in her right arm.

"So?" Jaune shrugged. Ruby gave a small growl as she narrowed her eyes. "Okay, okay, I won't wear the shirt." Jaune said.

"Good." Ruby said with a smile and head held high with eyes closed. "Wait a minute." Ruby made her was over to Jaune. "What are you planning?" Ruby questioned with narrowed eyes, leaning up to her husband.

"What are you talking about?" Jaune asked.

"You've spent too much time with Uncle Qrow and Yang to gain a more mischievous side." Ruby said. Qrow and Yang gave Jaune a thumbs up, but then put their hands down and acted all innocent when Ruby's gaze turned to them. "What are you planning?" Ruby asked pointing her finger to Jaune.

"I've got nothing." Jaune said with a shrug.

"Don't lie to me." Ruby said.

"I'm not lying. I got nothing. I told you I'm not going to wear that shirt." Jaune said.

"… Promise?" Ruby asked bringing up her left pinky.

"Promise." Jaune said with a smile bringing up one of his hands and made a pinky promise to Ruby.

!

!

Down at Patch, the city was spread out with lights from either Winter Harvest Lights or lanterns; both normal lights and colored lights. Snow was cleared out for the streets but still covered the roofs of buildings along with some statues and structures, giving the place a nice look, along with the lights making the snow shine a nice white, with a bit of an icy blue color.

The stores and food places were open, along with stands, selling toys, food, decorations, any kind of product that people might like.

There were also music bands playing festive tunes.

Jaune was walking down the bricked road humming as his daughter rode on his shoulders with a big smile on her face as she held up a stick with her dad's Bunny Ruby Chibi shirt tied to it, using it like a flag. Ruby was walking next to them with an annoyed pout and half lidded eyes, as she held Summer in her arms and had a black with thin red flowers printed diaper bag. Yang was following the two, whistling as she looked around the festival; even getting looks from men that were well-appreciated.

"I knew you planned something." Ruby said with annoyance.

"What? I just asked Angel if she wanted to bring a flag with her and she said she wanted to use the shirt. Isn't that right, honey?"

"Yup." Angel answered with a smile.

"Is being a sweet father really such a crime?" Jaune rhetorically asked with a smile.

"I'm taking that the first chance I get. I'm telling you this now, because I know you know I will." Ruby said looking ahead with annoyed half-lidded eyes.

"Aw, you wouldn't do that to our sweet little Angel, would you?" Jaune asked in an 'innocent' tone.

"She's a big girl. She'll understand." Ruby said with her eyes closed and head held high.

"Looks like she's being stubborn, Angel. Unleash your ultimate weapon." Jaune said, looking up to his daughter.

"Oh~, you're in trouble Ruby." Yang said with a grin.

"Please. I mastered that look. I perfected it to a T! No way, will anyone outdo me when it comes to-"

"Look up." Jaune interrupted his wife's proud rambling.

Ruby looked up, only for her eyes to widen and lips to shrink. Angel put on the puppy dog eyes, complete with pout. Ruby's lips quivered. She tried to stay strong, but when her daughter added a sob and little sad whine, she was officially defeated.

"Okay, okay, I won't take it." Ruby said looking away.

"Wow, I have seen things. Goliaths fighting one another for dominance, Eyed Walkers in a roaring contest with Juggernauts, a Faunus that had eagle wings and ram horns, and a man with a Gatling gun for a leg and a left fist smelted into a gold with jewels for knuckles, but to see Ruby Rose be outdone with a puppy dog pout look… I am almost speechless." Yang said with a smirk and hand over her breast.

"Oh zip it." Ruby said, still not looking back.

"Not facing me, huh? Too scared of the chance of getting hit again by Angel?" Yang teased.

"Feel proud Angel. You have officially surpassed the master." Jaune said with a smirk.

"Yes! I will treasure this moment." Angel said with a bright smile as she waved the flag more with excitement.

"It's like kid Ruby all over again." Yang said with a smile.

"Whatever." Ruby said rolling her eyes. "Wait… where's Eon? And dad and Uncle Qrow?" Ruby questioned looking around.

"I saw them separate earlier when Eon noticed something off to the side." Jaune said.

"Don't tell me…"

"Yep. Weapon shopping." Yang said.

!

!

Eon had run into a shop that sold weapon out the wazoo. He had five hundred lien and he was gonna spend it like mad. Good thing Qrow and Taiyang decided to accompany him.

"Oh! Can I get this one?" Eon asked pointing to a saber.

"Sure." Qrow said with a shrug and flask in hand.

"No." Taiyang quickly said.

"No wait! How about this one?" Eon want up to and pointed up at a large mace with very sharp spikes that glistened.

"Sure." Qrow said bringing the flask closer to his mouth.

"No." Taiyang said with his arms crossed.

"Oh, oh! This one~." Eon said pointing at twin gauntlets with spikes at the knuckles.

Qrow gave a thumbs up while drinking from his flask, while Taiyang gave a thumbs down with a frown.

Eon gasped noticing something new.

"Or maybe this one." Eon said slowly reached his hands towards a special staff with a long curved saber-like blade protruding out the end.

"No, no, Eon, don't touch that." Taiyang said with rising fear as his grandson got closer to the weapon.

"Would you stop being a buzzkill? It's the kid's money, ya know." Qrow said.

"Yeah, that you gave him. Haven't you ever thought there is a reason you don't give kids a heck ton of money?" Taiyang said with narrowed eyes directed at Qrow.

"This isn't even worth listening to." Qrow said as he took another swig from his flask, ignoring the glare and growl of his old teammate.

"Oh~~. I know what I want!" Eon exclaimed. Qrow and Taiyang looked. "That one!" Eon pointed up to a large sword for display, looking as long and thick like his father's but with a grey steel blade with the guard having a strange twin crescent guard that had one curved up and one curved down on each side. There was a button on the side of the handle. Eon pressed it as suddenly the blade burst into fire, burning bright, resonating off of Eon's face. Eon stared at it with awe as his eyes were super wide and sparkling with his mouth super wide.

Taiyang and Qrow stared at the flaming bright sword with wide eyes and gaped mouths. Their arms hung to the side with shoulders slumped. Qrow was so shocked that his flask fell to the floor with a clank.

"I blame you." Taiyang said glancing to Qrow with narrowed eyes.

!

!

Jaune was whistling to the tune of a nearby band, moving his hips side to side with every step he took.

"Careful Jaune, you get too invested into the groove and you'll be taking your little girl into a crazy ride. We might have to call her Vomit Girl by then." Yang teased.

"No~." Angel cried.

"Yang, don't be like that." Jaune said with an annoyed look.

"I'm always like this to you."

"Yeah, I know, but don't get her involved." Jaune said, nodding his head up to his daughter.

"I don't feel jolly." Angel said with a pout and sad eyes.

"Look what you did." Jaune said nonchalantly, looking to Yang with half lidded eyes.

"Wha- oh come on." Yang said with minor annoyance.

"Cheer up, Angel." Ruby said.

"But I don't feel happy." Angel said sticking her bottom lip out.

"Then what'll make you feel happy?" Jaune asked.

"Mm~… maybe that?" Angel pointed the end of her flag at a cookie stand where piping hot baked good and hot drinks were being sold.

"Oh I get it." Jaune said with a knowing smirk.

"Now I feel too cold." Angel said hugging herself. Jaune sighed shaking his head, still smirking.

"Will a nice hot chocolate make you feel better?" Jaune asked.

"Maybe~. With marshmallows, a peppermint stick and a squirt of maple syrup." Angel said.

"Getting ambitious there, aren't you?" Jaune said. Angel whined. "Okay~." Jaune said, giving up, only to make his little girl happy.

"Off noble steed! To hot chocolate and cookies galore!" Angel cheered.

"I never promised cookies." Jaune said.

"It's a given. Now ride!" Angel cheered with a big smile. "And whinny."

"Neigh." Jaune said, rolling his eyes.

"More heart!" Angel exclaimed, holding her flag up high.

"Neigh~!" Jaune exclaimed as he bucked a bit, making Angel laugh as he started lightly jogging towards the baking stand.

"She used me as a catalyst." Yang said with a gaped mouth and right fist pressed against her hip. "I've got to hand it to the girl. I really am impressed."

"She really gets it from us. I'm pretty proud." Ruby said with a smile. Yang nodded in agreement. "But a big bag for me as well!" Ruby called out.

"Got it!" Jaune called back.

Ruby smiled at the retreating form of her husband and daughter. Her eyes noticed a stand selling dust to people. Her eyes softened as she remembered her best friend.

"What's with that look?" Yang asked.

"Just… remembering Weiss." Ruby said.

"Oh…" Yang crossed her arms as her eyes got soft as well. "I miss her too." Yang looked over to Jaune and Angel. The little girl was asking for her favorite treats to the stand's vendor. "She would have loved to have spent more time with Angel." Yang said.

"Are you kidding? She spoiled her more than anyone. Angel was her world." Ruby said with a soft smile, remembering how much Weiss loved Angel. "I still wish she had her own kid."

"Yeah, well, what can you do? She became the Schnee Dust President, so she was busy. Plus Neptune wasn't… really the guy she wanted. She always wanted someone to challenge her as much as respect her. Kind of hard to find that for someone in her position of high royalty." Yang said.

"Yup." Ruby said.

"… Remember when she was interested in Jaune back at Haven?" Yang asked, turning to her sister. Ruby gave Yang a half-lidded eyed look. "Don't look at me like that, you still won him in the end."

"True, but be warned, this is the same look you'd get if you mention Oscar to Jaune." Ruby said looking back ahead.

"Oh don't worry. I catch the drift. Jaune's a pretty jealous man. I remember Uncle Qrow telling me about the first time he got drunk and he heard some guys talk about how pretty you were from afar. Things did not go well." Yang said with a smirk.

"How can one man bust up an entire bar like that after getting tipsy for the first time?" Ruby wondered to herself.

"Pretty much scarred the foundation. Got to hand it to him." Yang said looking up ahead. Yang smiled as she placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "I always missed this. Hanging out like old times."

"Yeah. You travel too much, you know that?"

"Maybe. What? Are you going to tell me to settle down with a guy or something?"

"Nah. I know you too well Yang. If you ever find someone, you're just going to drag them along for the adventure." Ruby said.

"Damn straight." Yang pointed to her sister with a smirk.

"Please not in front of Summer." Ruby said, gesturing to her baby girl in her arms, who was currently chewing on one of her white mittens. "It's bad enough you corrupted Angel and Eon."

"Oh come on, I didn't do that much damage." Yang said.

"Did you ever teach them to pick pocket?" Ruby asked. Yang glanced from side to side. "Oh my gosh, I was just kidding! What the heck, Yang?!"

"What did she do this time?" Jaune and Taiyang asked as everyone got back together.

"That was freaky." Yang said.

"I bought two whole bags!" Angel cheered as she raised up a bag of cookies. Jaune was holding the other bag of cookies and also a tray of hot chocolate, while his daughter hanged on to his head with one hand.

"So what did you guys get?" Jaune asked, looking to Taiyang, Qrow and Eon.

"A flaming sword." Eon answered with a smile.

"Uh… what?" Jaune questioned with wide eyes.

"Well, it was too expensive for five hundred lien, so Gruncle Qrow bought it for me." Eon said, pointing to the sword in Qrow's hand.

"… Why?" Jaune asked looking to Qrow.

"Kid wanted it, plus it looked pretty damn awesome, so I got him it so he could use it at ten." Qrow answered.

"Ten?!" Taiyang yelled out with disbelief.

"Yeah. The kids too hyper to wait around, so he's going to be trained properly eventually. I feel he'll know how to use a sword right when he finally hits those double digits." Qrow said.

"I don't think he's wrong." Yang said.

"So you decided to save up all that lien instead?" Jaune asked his son.

"I thought about it… but then I got this thing!" Eon took out a crossbow from behind his back; aiming it with a grin.

"Whoa~." Yang said as se, Jaune and Ruby flinched at the sight of Eon aiming a weapon.

"It only costed half of the money too." Eon said with a smirk.

"Son, maybe you should put that away." Jaune said, noticing the crossbow was loaded.

"Why? It looks too cool to put away." Eon said as he brought his new crossbow up, only for it to fire its arrow and strike a bird, which cawed in agony at being nailed.

"Birdie no!" Angel cried with sadness.

"Uh… I see your point." Eon said as he put the crossbow away, and tried to avoid the disapproving gazes of his parents.

Summer started making noise, causing Ruby to look to her. Summer was pointing one of her mittens somewhere, making Ruby turn her head in the direction.

"Oh a puppet show." Ruby said.

"Where?" Angel turned her head to see kids gather to see a puppet show about how Winter Harvest Day began. "I want to watch!" Angel cheered with a smile.

"Looks like Summer want to as well." Ruby said with a smile.

"Puppet shows are dumb." Eon said with a dull look. "Oh, what?!" Eon's eyes widened when he saw a large boat with rowing paddles in the puppet show. "How did they make that?"

"Now you're interested? I thought you just said puppet shows are dumb." Jaune questioned with a smirk.

"Uh, I didn't say that. Gruncle Qrow did." Eon pointed to his great uncle to spare himself of accusation.

"… Well they are." Qrow said with shrug before he took another swig of his flask.

'How much alcohol is in that thing?' Taiyang wondered as this was like the umpteenth time Qrow drank from his flask today.

"To the show noble steed!" Angel cheered, pointing her flag to the big puppet show.

"Race you!" Eon shouted as he started to run off.

"Not so fast." Jaune said giving Yang the tray of hot chocolate. "Crossbow." Jaune said with his now free hand extended to his son.

"Aw~, but why? I won't use it." Eon complained.

"I know, but I don't want to take that chance of that thing firing again. Especially in a crowd." Jaune said.

"But it's not even loaded."

"Yang taught you how to load weapons behind you back, didn't she?" Jaune questioned with a stoic stare. Eon groaned with a pout. He handed his father his crossbow, which was indeed loaded.

"Why do you teach them these things?" Taiyang asked his daughter.

"Eh. You never know when danger may strike. Might as well prepare them while they're still young." Yang said. Jaune took the crossbow from his son, but when he brought it back to himself, it accidentally fired the arrow into the air, which struck another bird, cawing with agony. Angel and Ruby gasped, while Jaune's eyes were wide. "Heh. Like father like son I see." Yang said with a smirk.

"Shut up." Jaune said, clipping the crossbow to one of the vacant slots on his belt.

"When will the bad stuff end?" Angel said with her eyes closed and back of the hand pressed against her forehead in a dramatic way. "Onward, steed." Angel said pointing her flag to the puppet show. Jaune just listened to his daughter and started walking over with the rest of the family.

!

!

Angel, Eon and Summer were watching the puppet show. They sat on the stone ground with other kids, with Summer sitting in between Eon's legs. Angel shared her bag of cookies with her brother. She even gave one to her little sister to chew on with her gums, but she knew she wouldn't be able to eat it; it was just given to her to chew on for fun.

Off to the side, Jaune, Ruby and Taiyang watched the kids with smiles on their faces, happy to see them enjoying themselves and be together.

Qrow and Yang were also happy, but they were bored. Of course travelling around the world doing top notch missions and fighting Grimm that ranged from small to the size of buildings, even skyscrapers, really skewers your perception of enjoyment.

Yang yawned as she leaned sat onto the wood that acted as the pot of a large plant that was covered in snow. She looked off to the side, too bored to pay attention to anything.

"My fish!" A man screamed, causing Yang to look to see a black cat run out of a stand with a fish in its mouth. "Get back here, you varmint!" The vendor shouted with a raised ladle.

Yang couldn't help, but smile as she remembered someone important to her. Her cheeks red remembering the person, but then she looked to the ground with sad eyes.

Qrow noticed his niece's behavior. He caught sight of an open bar nearby.

"You know… you look like you could use a drink." Qrow said to his niece, placing his hand onto her shoulder. Yang looked to her uncle.

"I'm gonna need a double." Yang said with a small smile.

"Heh. Live it up kid. It's Winter Harvest Day." Qrow said with a smile as he and Yang left.

Taiyang noticed the two walk away, heading into a bar. He sighed at their behavior. He really wished his eldest didn't follow **too** closely to her uncle's life, but then again, she was always as big a handful as he was.

Yang always said she wanted to travel around the world, beating up Grimm and complete jerks, as she'd put it, and become a legendary huntress. Well she pretty much is living the life. She said maybe, **maybe** , she might find love. Love wasn't on her mind when she was younger. The sad thing is so far she did fall in love, real love, but only once… and that person is not around.

He feels saddened for his oldest daughter. Losing someone you love, truly love, is a pain is bum to feel; he should know better than anyone. He just wished his daughter didn't get into the habit of drinking to deal with the pain.

Taiyang sighed, looking down, shaking his head. His gaze then looked over to his youngest daughter.

She was watching her kids and the show with a smile on her face with her arms crossed. Jaune looked to the side with a stoic expression. He then yawned, stretching his arms up and slowly reaching his left arm to snake around Ruby. Ruby noticed with a smile. She pressed her body against Jaune's side, allowing him to wrap his arm around her, making the tall blonde smile.

Taiyang couldn't help, but smile at the sight of the two.

He was proud of his Ruby. Granted he was proud of Yang all the same as well, but the way he was proud of them differed from one another. He was proud of Yang for fulfilling her dream of being a huntress and living the life she desired, but he was proud of Ruby for doing much more.

Ruby not only became the huntress she wanted, but she also found the romance she'd hope for. She found the man that she'd fall in love with, marry and have three beautiful children with. Who knows? Hopefully there might be more. Funny how she found her true love on the first day she went to Beacon.

Granted Taiyang wasn't keen on Jaune at first, seeing as he was always protective of his spawn, in fact… overly protective. However as he got to know Jaune and see the man he was and was growing up to be. In fact, in a lot of ways… Jaune was like Taiyang.

They're both good hearted men, willing to put their lives on the line for people they love and, hell, even for people they barely know, they're very protective of all they love, even getting suspicious of certain people getting a little too close, and Taiyang is willing to admit that, well… he may have been a bit of a shmuck when he was a student at Beacon. He was a hard hitter, but lacked the proper technique and fundamentals.

Luckily that's where Summer came in.

Taiyang's eyes softened as he remembered his old lover, Summer Rose.

Taiyang blinked his eyes as he looked to the ground. He looked back to Jaune and Ruby. For a moment, he could sworn he saw an image of himself and Summer. Taiyang blinked his eyes.

"Hmm." Taiyang looked over to his grandkids.

He saw Summer, the youngest of the three named after her grandmother, wanting to crawl away, but Eon was making sure she would stay. Her lip quivered, worrying her brother of the fact she might cry, but luckily in came Angel to save the day as she pulled Summer's favorite toy, her squeaky corgi toy. The baby girl stopped and looked at her toy. Grabbing it, she started squeezing it. Eon sighed with relief. Angel patted his shoulder with a smile as she continued to eat a cookie. Eon reached into the bag they had and took a cookie out to enjoy.

Taiyang smiled with his arms crossed. Happy to see his grandkids getting along.

However he remembered something when he saw Summer play with her toy. Something that caused his eyes to widen.

"Oh my God, we forgot Zwei."

!

!

In the meantime, Zwei stayed behind and rested on the large couch of Ruby and Jaune's cabin home. He was too tired to follow. He wasn't as fit like he used to be. Not liking the quiet, he opened one eye to notice the remote in front of him. He reached his paw over and pressed his nail on the power button, putting on the T.V. with a channel on that had cartoon sound affect.

Zwei sighed as he closed his eyes and dreamed.

!

!

"Eh. What can a dog his age do alone anyway? He's like seventeen years old." Taiyang said, but then his eyes widened. "Oh jeez, saying that out loud makes you realize how ancient your pet is." Taiyang said with shock.

Taiyang heard kids cheering and hands clapping. Apparently the puppet show was over. Taiyang started to remember the Winter Harvest Days where he would take Ruby and Yang. He also remembered having Summer by his side. Those were… very special days.

'Summer… I really wish you were here to enjoy this with me. Our grandkids… they're just so cute. I know you'd love them to death. And to see Ruby with such a happy family of her own.' Taiyang watched as when the kids were nearing close to their parents, Eon decided to gently hold up his sister's arms so that she could walk towards her parents. He chuckled at the sight of Summer trying to walk, constantly stomping her foot in front repeatedly, not knowing what to do, but when her mom knelt down and called her over with her arms out, the girl of four months started making her way over to her mother, with her siblings smiling as they were beside her the whole way. 'You would smile so bright at this sight. I can feel my heart fluttering seeing this… that's how I know you'd feel the same." Taiyang thought with a wide, bright smile as Summer finally made it to her mother, who hugged her close, gently rubbing her cheek against the top of her youngest child as she stood up.

A good amount of snow blew by Taiyang. He looked to his right to see what looked like an image of a figure wearing a white hood. The figure tilted their head a bit to reveal a womanly face shape with a smile aimed his way.

Taiyang blinked his eyes with a surprised expression on his face. The figure blew away into a wind of snow, disappearing, leaving him be.

Taiyang couldn't help, but stare with wide eyes. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, making him turn to see Jaune.

"You okay?" Jaune asked.

"Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you're just standing here alone with a sort of look on your face." Jaune said. Concern for his father-in-law etched onto his face.

"I'm good, I'm good. It's just… well Yang and Qrow just…" Taiyang pointed his thumb to the bar they went to.

"Ah." Jaune nodded, understandingly. "Guess… we'll let them have a little fun. Come on, it's getting dark. The kids are getting hungry, so let's get a bite."

"Seriously? They just ate cookies while watching a grand puppet show. Do you even feed them?" Taiyang said with disbelief.

"They got pretty high metabolisms. Kind of runs through the Arc family." Jaune said.

"Sadly Ruby and Summer had the same thing." Taiyang said.

"I've noticed on my end with Ruby. All the cookies she makes, all gone the next five to ten minutes." Jaune said looking to his wife, who was offered cookies by their eldest daughter, nodding softly as he watched. "Damn."

"Yup." Taiyang nodded. "So how's it feel being a father?" Taiyang asked.

"Mm~. Exhausting, gives you a headache, some stress here and there, the list goes on, but it's still rewarding. Especially to see them happy." Jaune said with a smile, watching his family interact.

"That's what it's all about." Taiyang said patting Jaune on the back. Suddenly a stomach growl was heard. Jaune looked to Taiyang, who continued to stare ahead. "Okay, now I'm hungry. Let's eat."

The two blonde fathers headed over to Ruby and the kids to enjoy something light to eat.

!

!

The family was sitting down at a nice small restaurant. It was a two story restaurant with wooden tables, red curtains and beautiful lighting.

Right now the family was sitting down eating light for now. They planned to have dinner at home.

Jaune had a nice grilled chicken with mash potatoes. Ruby just had a few nice cinnamon buns with chocolate milk; not surprising since she is known for her infamous sweet tooth. Taiyang just had a steak to fill him up for now. Angel was having angel shaped cookies for now. Summer was in a high chair drinking chocolate milk. The baby enjoyed her mother's breast milk, but they could never make anything with chocolate in it.

Eon… well he… was busy proving how much of a man he was by trying to finish off… a whole turkey.

Ruby was against it, but after some prodding from the four year old, Jaune consider 'eh, what the hay?' and let his son get his order.

The blonde boy had managed to finish off a leg and half the turkey, but was having trouble with the rest. Eon right now bit on the last drumstick of the turkey and tore it off, chewing on it before swallowing. Eon sighed as he rested the drumstick down.

"Full yet?" Jaune asked.

"No… no way!" Eon went back to eating his drumstick.

"Why did you let him get this again?" Ruby asked, resting her hand over her eyes.

"I just wanted to see how strong his resolve is." Jaune said with a small smile and shrug.

"I don't think it's really resolve, more stubbornness." Taiyang said.

"I blame myself for that." Ruby said, shaking her head.

"You sure you don't want to take the rest home?" Taiyang asked.

"I'm sure grandpa." Eon said with his mouth full.

"Eh… charming." Taiyang said with a dull grin.

"Eon, don't talk with your mouth full. A real gentleman keep his mouth shut when eating." Jaune said.

"I ain't no gentleman. I'm a real man!" Eon said, slamming the bottom bone of is drumstick onto the table.

"You're four years old. I don't see why you torture yourself to consider yourself a man." Angel said.

"Men can handle anything! Just look at dad, grandpa and Gruncle Qrow. They can handle anything." Eon said, gesturing his drumstick to his father and grandfather.

"Stomach aches aren't really on the list of things we can handle." Jaune said with his arms crossed.

"Yeah~, it's more enduring physical training and beatings from other people and Grimm." Taiyang said.

"Yeah. I should know on that middle part. I've gotten more beatings than I can remember." Jaune said.

"And yet you're still around with no bad injuries." Ruby said, smiling to her husband.

"Well I had great people sticking by me, making sure I stuck around longer." Jaune said with a smirk, looking to his wife. "One of them I got real close to. Always watching my back and lighting my fire." Jaune said smiling as he grabbed his wife's hand, making her smile widen.

Eon moaned with a frown.

"Are you guys trying to make me have a stomach ache?" Eon asked not feeling so good. He suddenly burped loudly making his family look to him with wide eyes. "Too late." Eon said placing his drumstick down and leaning back in his seat. "Why did I have to eat too much?"

"Because you say 'real men always eat their meat with pride'." Angel said.

"I don't remember saying that. Then again, I'm too stuff to even think." Eon said rubbing his belly.

"Well I'm not going to lie, you ate way more than I expected. I'm proud of you son." Jaune said.

"Thanks dad." Eon said with a thumbs up.

"Honey, you have some turkey on your face." Ruby said. Eon picked up an arm, but then put it back down with a groan.

"I'm too stuffed to reach the napkins." Eon said with a pout.

"Some excuse." Jaune said with a slight frown.

"Poor sweetheart." Ruby grabbed one on the napkins, walked over to her son, knelt down and cleaned his face for him. "We need to give you some ginger. Helps treat the stomach very well." Ruby said, wiping her son's face clean of turkey pieces.

"No more eating." Eon said with his bottom lip out.

Summer looked to her brother with blinking eyes. She looked to her bottle of chocolate milk to see there was still some left inside. Summer made a noise and extended her bottle to Eon. Eon's eyes widened as he covered his mouth.

Angel couldn't help, but giggle at the sight.

"Grandpa, where are Gruncle Qrow and Aunt Yang?" Angel asked.

"Uh, they're, um… taking a trip down memory lane." Taiyang lied with a smile.

"… Why are they at the other side of the town?" Angel asked.

"Huh? Wait… there's a new street called 'Memory Lane'?" Taiyang asked, turning to Jaune, who shrugged. They heard Angel giggle, making them look to her to see her covering her mouth. "Oh, I see. I was tricked. Classic." Taiyang said, rolling his eyes with a smile as Angel continued to giggle.

"I couldn't follow the story of that puppet show." Eon said as he mother sat back down in her seat calling out for a waiter to get her son some ginger for is tummy.

"It was about the first Winter Harvest Day." Angel said.

"Huh. Still don't get it." Eon said.

"You don't know about ow Winter Harvest Day was born?" Angel asked.

"Nope. Too many specials on the nice things about it, not enough on how it all started." Eon said.

"You never told him about the story behind it?" Taiyang asked, looking to Jaune and Ruby.

"It's been a long time since we read him the stories." Ruby said.

"Yeah, about two years, but by last year he was too hyper for the presents to care about listening to the story anymore." Jaune said.

"Well, I got nowhere to go no and I'm all ears." Eon said, rubbing his belly.

"Where is that ginger?" Ruby questioned, looking around for the waiter she just gave her order to.

"You just ordered it. Give it time." Jaune said, placing his hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Let grandpa tell you the story. It's a grandparents' job to tell stories." Taiyang said with a smile.

"It's not a boring one, is it? Gruncle Qrow told us to beware of those." Eon said.

Taiyang gained stoic eyes and a long frown.

"I'll get him for that later. And no, it won't be boring. I may not have puppets, but I got the right voice to tell nice stories. Imagine your great uncle telling stories with that cheese grater voice of his, huh?" Taiyang then put on his best Qrow impression. "'Okay, first there was a… eh, let's skip that boring part. Then there were these two guys who said forget the bad stuff and that's how we got it. Now where's my silly juice?'" Taiyang said with his Qrow impression, looking under the table for comedic effect, making Angel and Eon laugh.

"Good one grandpa." Angel said with a smile.

"Yeah, funny. Now can we hear the story?" Eon asked.

"Of course, kids. You see ages ago, there was this very bad time known as the Great War. It was between the kingdoms of Mistral and Mantel, which is now known as Atlas, against the kingdom of Vale. Vacuo was still in the neutral territory."

"What does noo-ter-al mean?" Eon asked.

"Neutral, means not really being on any side." Taiyang answered.

"Doesn't that make them an enemy?" Eon asked.

"No. They could become an enemy, but people who are neutral can become a friend, and later on Vacuo become Vale's ally, which is another word for friend."

"Nice." Eon said with a smile and fist raised up.

"The war itself was bad of course, but whenever Grimm came along, everyone put aside their differences to get rid of the Grimm first, then returned to their own battles. However, there soon became a new day where we put all our differences aside, and that day is today." Taiyang said with a smile. "During the war, a Vale medical soldier had found a wounded Mantle soldier. Normally any man would have left him behind, but upon seeing a fallen locket with the soldier's family photo inside, that soldier felt the need to save his life. Patching him up and taking him to his family home, for the days the soldier was unconscious, the soldier and his family treated his wounds and took care of him while he rest. Now in war, it is considered a crime to keep an enemy soldier in your care, but the soldier and his family kept the Mantle soldier hidden."

"Weren't they scared?" Angel asked.

"Well of course. Their family could have landed in big trouble, but one thing everyone wanted during the war was for it all to go back to when all of mankind worked together, lived together, and protected one another. The medic and his family wanted things to return like it used to, but in order for there to be hope that days like that will return, they had to show it by example. They felt what they did was the right thing to do, and they stuck by it. In time, the Mantle soldier had woken up. He was shocked that an enemy and his family helped him, but was touched by their spirit and hospitality. It gave him hope. Still needing some time to recover, the soldier was forced to disguise himself. The medic and his family let him stay with them. They fed him, they gave him a roof over his head and a nice bed, and in time, became a family friend to them. In his time in the enemy village however, he saw how hungry the people were and how sick they had gotten. War can cause such bad things, and the village was no exception. Yet still, people tried to help one another in any way possible, despite their bad condition. When the time came, the Mantle soldier charted a boat and headed back to his kingdom, but not before saying goodbye to his new friends, the family that cared for him."

"I'm guessing he came back." Eon said, followed by a burp.

"You guessed right. Days after he had left, he had surprisingly returned, with his own band of comrade, bringing in a giant ship filled with supplies of food, medicine and many other things to the people of the village. It was his way of returning the hospitality the people had given him, even if it was considered high treason."

"What's that?" Eon asked.

"It's another way of saying, betrayal or backstabbing his own team, but the Mantle soldier did not care. On that day, the people of the village of Vale and the soldiers of Mantle all celebrated in honor of their cooperation with one another."

"And it stopped the war?" Angel asked with a smile.

Taiyang frowned and shook his head.

"Afraid not. Despite their kindness to one another, there was still a war going on, and there were people who depended on them for their homes, so sadly, after that day, they had resumed being enemies."

"Oh… that's sad." Angel said with a frown.

"It gets sadder." Taiyang warned. "Months later the Mantle soldier learned that the medic who had risked everything to save his life had been killed in the line of action. The man who was both his enemy, yet became his greatest friend had been taken away. For the next few months he kept thinking of him, same with his family and the village. The people had given him so much kindness and asked for nothing in return. Even when he had nothing to do with the medic's death, he still felt guilty and ashamed for what happened. When it was nearing the time of the one whole year mark of his life being saved, a thought came to his head. Like the year before, he rounded up a secret group of Mantle citizens and soldiers, gathered supplies and shoved off to the village to gift them with food, medicine and for the children, toys. For the next few years this secret arrangement had went on. Once a year the people would forget the troubles of war and celebrate together, not caring of one's nationality or race, and just coming together as one big whole family and celebrating life and the people they have and love and living and loving for the people they lost and still love. People from even Vacuo and Mistral have heard about it, although in a secret manner, and joined in as well, bringing their own gifts and supplies to join in as well."

"And that's how Winter Harvest Day was born." Angel said with a smile.

"True… but there is more to the story." Taiyang said, surprising Angel and Eon. "You see, around the sixth year after the arrangement was settled, the kingdoms of Mantle and Mistral had discovered this and decided to settle things. They arranged an attack. When the ship was coming in close to dock in the village again… it exploded." Angel gasped while Eon looked with wide eyes. "People felt their hope lost. That perhaps… the war was too big for anyone to be together to live life and give love to one another." Taiyang said with sad eyes. However, he slowly smiled. "And yet… a miracle happened. Overnight, everyone in the village was given gifts in their homes. Food, medicine, toys, everything they could think of. They could not believe it. When everyone had gathered together, the family of the Medic had announced what had happened. What was left in their own home was the golden emblem of Mantle, but not just any one. It was the one owned by the Mantle soldier who had started the arrangement, and it had traces of soot on it. Despite what had happened, the Mantle soldier, had still managed to give everyone what they needed. Their hope for the future did not die that day, it only grew stronger. Every year from then on, gifts were left in the homes of people, and they all knew who it was."

"The Mantle soldier. Nicholas Klaus." Angel said.

"That's right honey. For everything he had done he was declared a Saint, which gave him his most famous name."

"Santa Claus. Huh… I wondered how he was involved." Eon said.

"That's how we got Winter Harvest Day. It only got better when the war was finally over. People from all the four kingdoms started to celebrate the holiday. Celebrating love and respect for life and thy fellow man and Faunus." Taiyang said with a smile.

"You really actually do have a knack for storytelling." Jaune said.

"Told you. It's a grandparent's job." Taiyang said with a proud smile.

"I wished Aunt Yang was here to hear all this… oh, and Gruncle Qrow." Eon said.

"Eh, she heard it enough times. I think she gets bored of the story by now." Taiyang said.

"Then I might too soon enough." Eon said.

"Why would you say that?" Angel questioned.

Summer made noise as she slammed her bottle onto the high chair table.

"Here's the ginger and extra chocolate milk bottle for you ma'am." The waiter from earlier said as he came back to Ruby.

"Thank you." Ruby thanked the waiter as she took the items.

"Here you go." Jaune gave the waiter a tip, earning a generous nod from the waiter as he grabbed Summer's dirty bottle, then left. "No wonder he took more time than expected, you also asked for something else."

"Eat up." Ruby said as she gave Eon the ginger and then gave Summer the new bottle of chocolate milk.

Eon took a bite of the ginger.

"When I grow up, I want to be just like both dad and Aunt Yang. A heavy hitter who takes no bad mouthing from anyone, and be fear by all Grimm and bad people. So I'll probably get bored of the story when I get older just like her." Eon said as he chewed on the ginger.

"Being more like me I'm good with, but more like your aunt? Well… I don't know." Jaune said scratching the back of his head.

"Why don't you also be more like mom too?" Angel asked.

"Because Aunt Yang says you got that part down in spades. Whatever that means. I'm sure it's another way of saying you're too much like mom." Eon said, taking another bite of his ginger.

"Well I don't want to be like anyone else." Angel said with a bright smile and flexing her small biceps.

"That's my girl!" Ruby cheered with a bright smile.

Jaune smirked happily, but then someone leaned onto his seat and burped into his face.

"Sorry being late. What did I miss?" Qrow asked, now drunk.

"Your lessons on manners and person space I'm guessing." Jaune said with a dull expression.

"Hey~ Gruncle Qrow. Feeling silly now?" Eon greeted his great uncle.

"So silly I could dance and sing." Qrow said with a grin.

"Please don't." Taiyang and Jaune said.

"I said I could, I didn't say I would."

"Where's aunt Yang?" Angel asked.

"Eh, she decided to stay behind and have herself a little bit more. She wanted to celebrate alone." Qrow answered.

"Oh crap." Jaune said as he, Ruby and Taiyang's eyes widened.

"But no one should celebrate alone today. Especially aunt Yang." Angel said with a sad expression.

"This is an outrage!" Eon shouted as he sat up and slammed his fist onto the table. "I feel like kicking someone!"

"Calm down, I'll go see how she's doing." Jaune said getting up.

"I'll come too." Ruby said getting up as well.

"Nah, spend time with the kids. I got this." Jaune said.

"Jaune, she's my sister."

"I know, but you know how she gets when getting… this way. She hates it when dealing with more than one person. She always complains about us ganging up on her."

"Yeah he's got a point. I still got the knuckle imprints to prove that time Taiyang forced me to help calm her down." Qrow said, before he then punched Taiyang in the arm.

"Ow! What the heck, Qrow?" Taiyang complained, rubbing his arm.

"I was so wrapped up with blood force trauma that I forgot to pay you back that day." Qrow said as he found a seat next to Tai.

"No you didn't! You still punched me that day." Taiyang complained.

"Then I just wanted to do that." Qrow said sitting down.

"Then I should go deal with this." Ruby said.

"Nah, let the blonde go. He's better for the job." Qrow said waving a dismissive hand.

"But-"

"She saw a cat earlier… black… with fish in the mouth. Let the blonde go." Qrow said. Ruby stayed silent. She sighed.

"Please…" Ruby looked to Jaune with concerned eyes.

"I'll take care of it. I promise." Jaune said with a soft smile. He leaned in kissed Ruby on the lips, before he started heading off.

"Oh, Jaune, do you mind…" Taiyang pointed his thumb to Qrow.

"Sure." Jaune walked over to Qrow, then jabbed his fingers into his knuckles.

"Ow! What-?!" Jaune then flicked Qrow in the throat, grabbed the sides of his head and shook it side to side, flicked him in the eyelids and finished by gently knocking on his head. "What the hell is-?! Uh… wait… I'm sober!"

"Learned that on one of my journeys." Jaune said with a wink and point at Qrow, before leaving.

"Where's the fun in this?" Qrow questioned with annoyance, while Taiyang smirked.

"Will aunt Yang be alright?" Angel asked, looking to her mother.

"Don't worry kid, your father will take care of things." Qrow said. He then whistled to a waiter. "Three steaks. Put it on my nephew's tab. He's the tall blonde one who just left."

"I got to go." Eon said as he hopped off his seat.

"Where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"Bathroom." Eon said.

"I'll go with him." Angel said, hopping off her seat as well.

"Okay. Be careful." Ruby said as he kids started walking away.

"Mom, we're just heading to the bathroom." Eon said.

"I know, I know." Ruby said, trying to act calm. "Angel, remember, anything happens, you just grab your brother and run back here faster than the wind." Ruby called out.

"Okay mom." Angel called out.

"Wow, you've become real uptight kid." Qrow said to Ruby.

"It's what happens when you get kids, Qrow." Taiyang said.

"Thank Oum I'm don't have any." Qrow said taking out his flask, but then Taiyang took it away. "Hey!"

"I think you've had more than enough today." Taiyang said with half-lidded eyes.

"Unless you want this restaurant to get its first bar fight, I suggest you give that back." Qrow threatened with narrowed eyes.

Ruby sighed, shaking her head at her family's antics.

Eon and Angel were making their way to the bathrooms, but then Angel spoke up.

"What are planning?" Angel asked.

"Why are you asking?" Eon asked, stilling walking, not facing his sister.

"You want to help Aunt Yang feel better too, right?" Angel asked.

"Well yeah, but why do you always have to get involved into my stuff?" Eon questioned, turning to his big sister.

"Because it's what Aunt Yang would have done with mom. She taught me that since I'm a big sister, you and Summer are always going to need me, even when you say go away. Besides, I want to help. Aunt Yang is important to me too." Angel said. Eon looked to his sister a moment, before sighing.

"Fine. Follow my lead." Eon said turning back forward.

"Nu uh." Angel shook her head, grabbing her brother's shoulder. "I'm not following, I'm supervi… supervi… um… supervising! Yeah, that's the word." Angel said with a smile.

"I don't like you sometimes." Eon said with a pout. His sister's response with giving her brother a big tight hug. "Stop it~." Eon whined with a frown and blush.

!

!

When Jaune left the restaurant, he went back to the last place Qrow and Yang, which was where the big puppet show was. When making it to the location, he looked around for the nearest bar, since Qrow and Yang don't like to go far for a drink and then found one.

'The Knocked Peg. Classic Name.' Jaune thought, looking up at the sign that had the picture of a bar stool that had one of the pegs broken off. Jaune walked right in and looked over the place. "Yep… Yang was here." Jaune said noticing unconscious men, scared women with some fanning some of the unconscious men, broken chairs and tables, and the counter at the bar having a hole in one part of it. "I guess she left." Jaune said. He looked around and found a man indented into the wooden wall, but what caught his eye was Yang's robotic arm. He walked right over, grabbed the arm and pulled it out, along with the dazed man there. "You can let go now." Jaune said, causing the robotic arm to release its grip on the man, letting him fall to the floor.

"What hit me?" The man questioned.

"My sister." Jaune said, holding the robotic arm in both hands.

"That blonde bimbo was your sister?!" The barkeep questioned with annoyance.

"Sister-in-law, but still, yeah." Jaune said with a shrug.

"Is she single?" The dazed man on the floor asked.

"You're not man enough to handle her." Jaune said walking away.

"That bitch owes me for the damages!" The barkeep shouted.

Jaune took out a card and tossed it onto the counter of the bar.

"Bill it to me. It's not the first time I had to pay for her messes." Jaune said as he started heading for the door.

"I don't want to see that whore back here agai-"

Jaune then reached into the back of his coat, pulled out a shotgun, pointed it at the barkeep and changed it into Excalibur.

"Call her another thing." Jaune said with a stern glare, scaring the bar keep. "Call her another thing… I dare you." Jaune said with a more threatening tone. The bar keep kept his hands up and walked backwards a bit. Jaune changed Excalibur back into its shotgun mode and put it back into his coat.

Jaune walked out of the bar, and sighed.

"Thank you Jaune." A female voice thanked the Arc.

"No problem. She must be pretty wasted to have left you behind like that, Penny." Jaune said looking to the arm.

"It's about Blake again. I know it's been some time, but it's as if the wounds are still as fresh as they are since that day." Penny said, moving her robotic digits.

"Well that's probably because she still keeps picking at them." Jaune said.

"I have not heard that human slang before." Penny said.

"Slang?" Jaune let out a small laugh. "She really is changing your vocabulary."

"She's not too success at it though."

"You can still track her, right?" Jaune asked.

"Of course. Part of my robotics is still connected to her. I just need to activate my guiding beacon." Penny said. After a moment of robotic noises, Penny became erect with her palm aiming somewhere, forcing Jaune's arms to move a bit. "I will direct you." Penny said.

"Thanks." Jaune thanked the robotic arm that was once a synthetic human. He then started to follow Penny's compass-like lead. "So how did it all start?" Jaune asked.

"That person who was stuck in the wall flirted with Yang after Qrow had left. He wouldn't leave when Yang told him to, so she grabbed him by the shirt and detached me off to send him flying into the wall. The rest was her doing. I think the patrons were waiting for a fight to break out." Penny explained.

"So she took them all on with just one arm. That's Yang for you. Getting too strong every day." Jaune said with a smile.

"This is the reason why people ask for her help every day. Everyone is too scared with the Black Arms around that they need powerful huntsmen and huntresses." Penny said.

"Then why haven't they called Ruby and I in yet?" Jaune asked.

"The Black Arms aren't seen as an extremely high priority type of group. You and Ruby and considered as people like to call trump cards, the big guns." Penny elaborated.

"Doesn't mean we don't feel getting involved." Jaune said.

"Then what's stopping your from joining?" Penny asked.

It was at that moment, Jaune's thoughts went to his kids. Jaune's eyes became somber, thinking about if something bad happened to him while he was away from the family, making his kids sad, or worse, if he wasn't there to protect them, leading to…

Jaune shook his head to get rid of such a dreadful thought.

"I'm guessing you have an answer?" Penny asked.

"Yeah. I'm kind of crisscrossed on this though." Jaune said.

"I understand. Well… no I don't. I'm just artificial, so I can't understand certain things humans feel. One is… having a family of your own. I think that's why I feel so close to Yang, because… she missed out as well." Penny said, feeling somber.

"She didn't miss out. She just fell in love so hard she just couldn't see herself with anyone else… and since they're gone, to her, no one will even come close." Jaune said.

"It must be very sad, yet… nice to feel such a way. When it comes to love." Penny said.

"Mm hmm." Jaune said with a nod and sad eyes.

"… You know who crossed my mind when I was still stuck in there? Alexander."

"Who? Reebok?" Jaune asked.

"Yes. I don't know why, but he just crossed my mind." Penny said.

"Mm." Jaune responded with a single nod.

For the rest of the walk, they both stayed silent.

After some time, Penny started picking things up.

"She is nearby." Penny said.

Jaune looked around to notice they were at the pier, near the large lake by the village. Jaune followed Penny's directions and found Yang sitting on the wooden platform of the dock. Jaune walked over and sat down next to Yang, on her left side. The two were silent, staring ahead. Jaune extended Penny to Yang.

"Thanks." Yang said, grabbed the robotic arm with her left hand and reattached it back where it belonged.

"So why here?" Jaune asked.

"I'm closer to the fish." Yang said.

"Mm." Jaune nodded.

"'Mm'? Is that really all you can say?" Yang questioned, turning her head to Jaune with a hint of annoyance in her voice and expression.

"No, there's more, but I just wondered if you still want some time to think." Jaune said.

"I don't know what I want." Yang said looking back forward to the lake.

"I don't believe that."

"Shut up!"

"Okay." Jaune shrugged.

"Don't keep silent. Keep talking!" Yang exclaimed, pointing at Jaune.

"… So how are you enjoying the holiday?" Jaune asked. Yang sighed, leaning forward, with her arms resting onto her legs.

"Its fine, I guess. Until I saw that damn cat. The puss." Yang said looking to the side with a pout.

"Cats are everywhere."

"Especially black cats." Yang added with annoyance. The two then remained silent for a time. After a long pause, Yang turned to Jaune and spoke. "Quit acting like you know!" Yang shouted, pointing at Jaune as her eyes flashed red.

"But I do know, in a way." Jaune said, looking to Yang.

"Yeah, well you never had Pyrrha for years! You only had her for months and even then you didn't know you loved her until it was too late." Yang argued.

"True." Jaune nodded. "Still… I know the feeling of being obsessed with someone when they are gone."

"Tch." Yang leaned down forward and looked to the side. "You never had the balls to tell her though."

"You usually beat me to the punch when it comes to being brave Yang."

"Whatever." Yang's teeth slightly gritted a bit. "Why did you come?"

"Because I'm the closes to understand your situation. Well, you know, the closest who won't get too emotional and personal on you." Jaune said.

"Dad and Ruby would do that." Yang said, nodding in acknowledgement. Yang stayed silent. "It would have been a nightmare, never to tell her."

"Tell me more." Jaune said, leaning forward with his head turned to her.

"What the hell man?" Yang said, turning her head to Jaune; her eyes turned red again.

"No, I'm serious. I've only been living for Pyrrha out of guilt and to bring justice on her behalf. I haven't really felt what real love is by the time I lost her, so I just want to know, why would it be a nightmare to never tell the person you love that you loved them." Jaune said with sincerity in his voice.

"Jaune, don't be a moron. We're the same age. You could guess a clear picture of it." Yang said. Jaune just shrugged his shoulders, causing Yang to sigh. "Everyone knew what I felt… how I felt… but there's always a difference between knowing it and just hearing it. What you say always matters. I know actions speak louder than words, but you need to at least say it to make those actions confirmed in people's heads."

"So you felt Blake knew your feelings?" Jaune asked.

"I… I don't know. Probably not. Everyone else knew, but I guess she was…"

"Oblivious? Dense? I'm familiar with that feeling." Jaune said.

"Yeah~… you are pretty dense." Yang said, nodding.

"I meant when it came to a girl's feelings towards me."

"I know." Yang simple said. Jaune stared at her with dull eyes and his lips out.

"So you don't seem drunk like I expected." Jaune said leaning back with his hands pressed against the wooden surface of the dock.

"I kind of got a lot of it out of my system after kicking the crap out of every asshole in there. By the way, how much did I cost you this time?"

"Don't know. Just left the card, so I'll have to look up the purchase in my account tomorrow and confirm it. I'll tell you then." Jaune answered.

"I'm not going to be able to pay you back." Yang said.

"Why start now?" Jaune rhetorically asked, making Yang laugh. Yang went mute with a sad smile on her face.

"You can't understand me Jaune."

"Yes I can." Jaune simply said.

"Well you can't understand me… completely." Yang said.

"That's fair." Jaune said with a shrug.

"… I love Blake… as more than a friend or a sister… I love her like you love Ruby." Yang said. Jaune looked to her with a calm expression. "I'm surprised I'm not the only girl who felt that way about her."

"Right, there was that other chick. What was her name?"

"I don't know, all I know is that she was a chameleon Faunus." Yang said with a dismissive wave. "Although I guess I can understand her jealousy. Wanting her to see you in that way. That would have been nice."

"Why would you need me if she said yes to you?" Jaune said with a small smirk.

"I'd still need you. Hell, we would have made a killer trio." Yang said with a grin, placing her hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"Would have been nice to have a level headed person to talk to." Jaune said.

"Hey, I'm tons level headed!" Yang complained.

"I mean on a conventional basis." Jaune clarified.

"Oh." Yang retracted her hand and looked back down to the lake. Her eyes got somber. "Do you… think it would have work?"

"Yes." Jaune said.

"That was a pretty quick answer." Yang said.

"Well it was a pretty easy question to answer." Jaune said.

Yang blinked her eyes.

"So you really think it would have worked?" Yang asked.

"Pretty much. You two were a pretty cute idea for a couple. Plus you both worked so well together in so many ways." Jaune said. Yang smiled letting a small giggle out.

"Thanks. That really means a lot Jaune." Yang said, pushing some strands of hair behind her ear. "You still won't get me though."

"Not completely. I know how it is to love and lost. Especially so hard. Even… when it comes to a person you knew so well… or people." Jaune's eyes became somber. Yang's eyes became somber as well.

"I'm sorry about Ren and Nora." Yang said as she leaned closer to Jaune and rested her head against his shoulder. Jaune patted Yang's head. The two stayed silent for what felt like hours to them. "Jaune… did you really love Pyrrha?"

"Yes."

"Do you still love her like that?"

"Yes."

"Do you wish she was still alive?"

"Yes."

"She was here?"

"Yes."

"If she did survive… do you think you would have ended up with Ruby?"

"No." Jaune admitted shaking his head.

"Figures." Yang said, her eyes drooping a bit as she stared down at the surface of the lake. "I… I want to know… if you had to go through life a second time… would you try to live it with Pyrrha?" Yang asked, looking up to a stoic Jaune.

"Only as a friend, I guess."

"Why is that?"

"Because I'm too in love with Ruby to even think about a life without her." Jaune answered with complete sincerity.

"Even if it isn't the same Ruby?" Yang asked.

"I will always love the Ruby I have as my wife with all my heart… but it's her character, of who she is and what she stands for, and what she represents that makes me swoon for her every time. There's more, but the simplest answer is usually the better." Jaune explained.

"That's probably the most mouthful answer I got so far right now." Yang said with a smile. "So… Team Lancaster all the way, huh?"

"That name. Very clever Weiss." Jaune said with a smirk.

"Well she did always pride herself as the cleverest of Team RWBY." Yang said with a smirk. Yang looked to the water again with a small smile. The shattered moon's moonlight reflected off the surface of the water. She suddenly developed a frown. "But… what if you did have to do it again… and she didn't want to be with you, but… with someone else?" Yang asked.

"You mean Oscar?" Jaune asked with a stoic expression.

"Well it doesn't have to be Oscar, but uh… for this scenario let's say yes." Yang said.

Jaune's eyes became somber as they looked to the surface of the lake.

"I wouldn't want to think of it, but… I'd…" Jaune sighed. "If there really was no way… then I'd let her be happy. I would want us to be together, but relationships are a two way street."

"… Would you still try to make her happy, even if you two aren't…"

"Together-together?"

"Yeah that. Would you still try to make her happy?"

"Yes."

"Even… if you have to hide all that love inside?"

"If it's to make sure she stays happy… then yes."

"… Jaune…"

"Yes?"

Yang closed her eyes and hugged Jaune as she snuggled her head more on his shoulder.

"You do understand me."

Jaune wrapped an arm around Yang, returning the hug with a one arm one of his own.

The two stayed silent for what felt like the longest time. The moonlight from the shattered moon shined down upon the lake, causing a light to glow from the surface of the water.

The lake became a calm place right now, even if today is a day for festivities.

"Do the kids miss me?" Yang asked.

"Like always." Jaune answered.

Yang closed her eyes and smiled.

"Then let's not keep them waiting." Yang said as she pushed off of Jaune.

Jaune got up to his feet and extended his hand down to Yang. Yang took hold of her fellow blonde's hand and was helped up to her feet. The two turned and walked away, heading back to town.

As they walked away, a fish hopped out of the water and landed right back in.

!

!

Back at the restaurant, Qrow was eating a dish of mash potatoes with his third steak and a large corn on the cob.

"You know we were supposed to eat lightly." Taiyang said.

"Give me a break. I had to do a long flight to get here." Qrow said.

"Yeah, and when you got here you had breakfast with us." Taiyang said, reminding Qrow of their first meal together today.

"Details, details." Qrow said as he took another bite of his mash potatoes.

Ruby was tapping her bottom lip with her index finger and her foot against the floor at a rapid pace, as she looked around for her kids.

Summer stared at her mother in confusion. She then looked to her now empty bottle and shook it. Summer made a noise, extending her empty bottle to her mother.

Ruby looked to her daughter. Out of instinct, she took her from the highchair and started rocking her gently, but still at a bit of a fast pace.

"We're back." Angel said with a smile as she and her brother returned.

"Oh thank Oum! Where have you two been?" Ruby asked, going into mother mode.

"Around." Eon said as he and his sister stopped next to their seats.

"And what would 'around' be, hm?" Ruby asked.

"Why did you ask it that way?" Eon asked with a raised eyebrow as his sister put something down next to her seat.

"Because your definition of the word could mean anything. From around the restaurant to around the town. A mother gets worried, you know." Ruby said.

"Glad I will never know." Eon said as he and Angel hopped back onto their seats.

"You'll know when you're a father though." Taiyang said.

"If I ever become a father." Eon said.

"Hey, now what's that now? You can become a great father in the future. Besides, I want grandkids." Ruby said.

"You know, I figured this conversation wouldn't matter until the kid hit the double digits." Qrow said.

"I'm just saying, I don't want my kids to miss out on finding someone they love in the future and have their own kids." Ruby said with her head held high as she continued to rock Summer in her arms.

"Aunt Yang doesn't have kids, so why should I?" Eon asked.

"Hey, don't use me as an example." Yang spoke, causing the family to turn to see her and Jaune walking to them.

"Auntie Yang!" Angel cheered as she hopped off of her seat, grabbed something next to her seat and ran over to her aunt. "Here!" Angel extended a bag to Yang.

"What's this?" Yang asked kneeling down to her niece.

"I know you're not a big fan of cookies, but I didn't know what else to buy with my lien." Angel said.

Yang took the bag, reached right in and took out a cookie, only for her eyes to widen at the shape of it.

"A… cat?"

"Gruncle Qrow mentioned you saw a cat earlier and I figured you got sad because you don't have one. I couldn't buy you a cat right now, so this was the best I could do on short notice." Angel said, putting a hand over the other and twisting side to side.

Yang blinked her eyes.

"O-oh." Yang said, with her voice cracking a bit.

"I got these." Eon extended a whole bunch of lien in front of his aunt's face.

"Uh… that's more than five hundred lien." Yang said.

"I took what you taught me to heart and took these from the jerks of the season, or as you call them Grinches. I figured this would mean more if I took the lessons you taught me to get it, you know?" Eon said with a smile.

"… You~ taught my son how to pickpocket?" Jaune questioned with a calm expression, but on the inside he was a bit hysterical that his own son was a thief… and at the age of four no less!

"Hot damn. I wish I was that cool when you girls were that age." Qrow said with a smirk.

"Not the time Uncle Qrow." Ruby said to her uncle with a stern gaze. She was, of course, miffed about her son knowing how to pickpocket as well and now could earn a criminal record if the cops got wind.

Yang slowly started to smile. She started to laugh. It got louder as she put down her new bag of cat shaped cookies and brought her niece and nephew into a hug.

"You two are the best. You really are." Yang said with a bright smile. "Thank you, so much." Yang said feeling sincerely happy. Angel and Eon smiled and gave one another a thumbs up. "You two are the best niece and nephew any aunt can ask for." Yang said pulling back from them, smiling at the pair. Yang then walked over to Ruby and Summer and rubbed her hand atop of the baby's head. "And I'm sure when you finally understand human speech, you'll be just as great as your big siblings too." Yang said with a smile.

"Just don't teach this one any felonies in the future." Ruby said.

"No promises~." Yang said in a sing-song tune. Ruby sighed and looked to the sighed with annoyance.

"You know you got to return that lien." Jaune said to his son.

"How? Aunt Yang taught me how to take the cards, not to remember faces." Eon said, walking back to his seat with his sister. Jaune sighed, shaking his head. "So how long until we can go see the parade?" Eon asked as he hopped back onto his seat.

"Not long." Taiyang said looking to his scroll to view the time.

"Enough time to let this food digest a bit." Qrow said, seeing the time.

"After we pay, we'll go take a nice walk and enjoy the scenery of the town before we get to see the parade." Taiyang said.

"That'll feel like forever." Eon said slumping in his seat.

"Everything feels like forever when you're a kid." Yan said with a smile as she sat down with her family.

Jaune looked to Qrow, who was still eating.

"Is he making you pay for that?" Jaune asked Taiyang pointing at Qrow's meal.

"No, even better. He's making you pay for it." Taiyang answered.

"What?! Ugh, Qrow."

"What can I say? I just love leaning on sissy blonde family men." Qrow said with a smile, pointing his fork with steak at the end of it at both Jaune and Taiyang.

"I'm not-" Jaune and Taiyang said in unison, but stopped and looked to one another with dull looks, while Qrow laughed as he continued to enjoy his meal.

!

!

The family had been going around the festival more, enjoying the day. They played some games, bought some trinkets and did the usual thing.

It was nearing the time of the parade and Jaune bought his kids something special for it.

Angel and Eon now had paper lanterns in their hands.

Angel had a round shaped silver lantern with a black outline of a heart on it.

Eon had a golden one with a picture of a sword on it.

Ruby was also holding a lantern which was pink with a picture of a white bird on it, most likely being a dove.

The family made it to the biggest road of the town. Metal railings were put to secure people from being in the path of the parade floats. The family managed to get a good spot to watch the show.

Waiting a bit more, more people came and a large crowd was already piling up.

"Stay close and hold on to those lanterns kids." Ruby said, looking down to her son and eldest daughter, while Summer was poking her lantern.

"I ain't letting this go for nothing." Eon said, keeping a frim, yet gentle grip on his lantern, while Angel smiled at her brother's enthusiasm.

Ruby smiled brightly as she held Summer close and rubbed her cheek against Summer's cheek.

"You look pretty happy." Yang said with a smile.

"This is Summer's first Winter Harvest Day parade. I'm always excited for the first time of my kids, and this is no exception!" Ruby said with pure glee. Jaune couldn't help, but smile, seeing his wife so happy; and the fact that Summer had a confused look on her face made it all so adorable.

"I think they're going to start." Qrow said noticing some lights in the distance.

Sure enough they did.

The parade floats started coming in as music played causing everyone to cheer.

They were all bright and were based on the best times in Remnant's history. There were floats dedicated to each of the four kingdoms, a large float on humans and Faunus getting along showing equality, one of the kings of the four kingdoms from the end of the Great War with the Warrior King of Vale holding up a large sword, one on the festivities of the Vytal Tournament complete with what looked like people cheering as huntsman and huntresses in training were enjoying a battle with one another, one of the Medic and Nicholas Klaus shaking hands, one of Nicholas Klaus as his most known alias today, Santa Claus, giving gifts and so much more.

"I don't get why they made that Nick guy so fat now. He was a pretty fit soldier from the history books I read." Qrow said, taking a swig from his flask that he somehow got back from Taiyang.

"It's all because of that Shade Cola that's been around. They needed a mascot for this season decades ago, so they decided to make him a bit heavier to be more marketable because it made him look more unique and jolly." Taiyang said to Qrow.

"Well what a perfect mascot. Buy and drink our soda and this could be you in the future. Santa agrees." Qrow said, as he and Taiyang laughed.

Angel and Eon stared with wide amazed, shimmering eyes and wide open mouth smiles.

Yang noticed people starting to gently toss their lanterns into the air, causing them to fly up to the sky.

"You kids going to follow the crowd and let those fly?" Yang asked her niece and nephew with a smile.

"Nah. At least not yet. I'm waiting for my favorite float." Angel said with a smile.

"Same here." Eon agreed with an excited grin.

Jaune smiled. The family knew which float was their favorite. After waiting and watching more floats go by, everyone was enjoying themselves.

Jaune noticed a white float that was of the Schnee Dust Company, but they had a figure of a white haired woman with her hand up and a rapier in the other pointed down and behind her was a large figure of a knight on one knee with a giant sword in hand pointing into the surface of the float.

Jaune knew who that was. He turned to Ruby to see her smiling at the float, but her eyes were soft with both joy and sadness.

"Weiss." Ruby whispered as a tear was shed from her right eye.

Jaune felt saddened. Ruby and Weiss were as close as sisters, and they got even closer after the war with Salem and even more so when Angel was born since Weiss was made the young dark haired girl's godmother. Even if it has been a bit over four years since her passing, the wounds were still fresh as ever, especially around the winter holiday, since there was all the snow.

Jaune wanted to walk over and hug his Weiss, but he felt that she needed to be to her own thoughts right now.

"Still a shame what happened to her." Jaune heard a woman whisper.

"I still don't understand why we're still allowing people from around the four kingdoms to come here with the Black Arms still around, parading as innocent civilians." A man whispered.

"It's to show how strong we are, remember? No matter what, we should always show love and acceptance around this time. It's the right thing to do." The woman whispered to the man.

"It's still a very stupid thing to do." The man said.

Jaune closed his eyes.

'What people believe is the right thing to do is usually considered the dumbest choices.' Jaune thought.

"Oh! Oh! Here it comes!" Angel cheered with a big smile pointing to a certain float in the parade.

Jaune looked only to smile.

It was considered the best float in the show. It was commemorating the victory over Salem.

The most notable part of the float was the large figure of Salem leaned back with her hands up using powers of lightning, kind of strange since she was more of a winter woman and she had no powers of lightning whatsoever, and floating above her was a figure of Ruby with Crescent Rose revved back for a slice on the Mother of all Grimm. Around the float were the figures of him and the others during the battle. Jaune's figure was next to the flying Ruby figure, but was charging at Cinder, using her fire manipulation at him, but his figure was blocking it with a shield, and surprisingly in between Jaune and Ruby's figure was a figure of Pyrrha with angel wings.

Jaune couldn't help, but smirk at the sight of Pyrrha with angel wings.

Weiss' figure was fighting off Grimm with Blake and Yang, Sun's figure was in the air a bit near Blake's, sending a flying kick with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang in hand as he fought flying Grimm. Nora's figure was flying through the air by standing on the mallet part of her Warhammer Magnhild as pink smoke came out the end of it from recently firing, and Ren's figure was in the air next to her with Sun Flower in both hands ready to attack. The last figure was Oscar standing atop a rock near Ruby and Salem with his/Ozpin's staff stabbed into the rock's surface.

It was a pretty good looking float, even after all these years it still looked grand.

"It looks so cool~." Angel said with shimmering eyes.

"I still wish they could have dad right next to mom. I mean his sword did pierce ugly Salem." Eon said being critical.

"True, but dad always had a personal, um… vengeance against the girl with the black hair and fire powers." Angel said.

"What was with the pause?" Yang asked.

"I wanted to say that other 'V' word that meant the same thing." Angel said.

"You mean vendetta?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, that one!" Angel cheered with a smile.

"By the way, you gonna toss those lanterns up now?" Jaune asked with a smile.

"Oh, right!" Angel said.

Angel and Eon glowed a bit with their aura, Angel's being white colored and Eon's being blue with a hint of gold. Their lanterns glowed the color of their aura from within. Ruby sent her own red colored aura into the lantern she had in hand, causing the same effect.

Jaune took out his scroll and pressed the record button. Angel and Eon gently tossed their lanterns up, causing them to start flying up into the air. Summer noticed what the lanterns her siblings tossed up, and was instantly hooked on staring at them with wonder.

"Summer." Ruby whispered, causing her baby girl to turn to her. "Here." Ruby brought the lantern to the baby. Summer brought a hand forward and touched the paper shell of the lantern. "Toss it up." Ruby said, gently bringing the lantern up a bit. Summer didn't understand. Ruby gave her daughter the lantern, allowing her to hold it within both of her hands. Out of instinct, Summer tossed the lantern into the air, causing it to start flying. "Yay~!" Ruby cheered with a bright smile, happy to see her daughter, now confused by her mother's reaction, toss her first Winter Harvest Day lantern into the air.

Jaune's smile brightened up. Just seeing the smiles on his eldest daughter, son and even wife's faces makes him so happy, warming his heart, and he found Summer's confused expression so~ adorable. Ruby suddenly gave her baby girl an Eskimo kiss, making her giggle with a large open mouth smile. Okay, now he was laughing a bit with a big bright grin, seeing Summer smiling as well.

Jaune looked up to the sky with a smile, seeing the bright different colored lanterns floating up into the night sky. His eyes softened to see all those beautiful colors. All those various auras from so many people here in this festival. It made him smile to see such a sight. Everyone coming together, putting their souls into such a day of love, togetherness, acceptance and hope. He always loved this holiday just for this feeling and sight. It's what he and all of his friends wanted in this world, and what they are still fighting for to attain and keep. It's a day like this that makes all the hardship he and his friends go through worth it.

Jaune looked to see Yang smiling up as well, then he turned to see Taiyang and Qrow doing the same. Taiyang patted Qrow's shoulder, giving him a smile. Qrow nodded with his own smile. He then did the unthinkable and offered Taiyang a swig from his flask. Taiyang shrugged, deciding what was the hell? Taking the flask from his teammate, he took a swig, only to pull it away and cough up, holding his throat, causing Qrow to chuckle at the sight.

Jaune smiled at the sight of the two. They argue a lot at times, but they truly were like brothers.

Jaune then turned his sights to Ruby. Her eyes shimmered and smile was bright as she stared up into the sky filled with color. She felt a pair of eyes on her, making her look to Jaune. The smiled brightly at one another. Jaune took a step forward to his wife and locked lips with her, with her returning her kiss in kind.

The two closed their eyes as Jaune wrapped his arms around Ruby and to an extension, Summer, while Ruby leaned in closer to her husband, now pressed against his body.

Tonight felt perfect.

!

!

After the parade, the family went back home and enjoyed some Winter Harvest Day specials, while Ruby and Jaune cooked dinner. They all sat down, prayed and ate dinner, having a time talking to one another.

Now they all were back in the living room.

Yang groaned, sitting in a recliner chair, pulling the seat back with and raising the footstool up, allowing her to relax as she rubbed her stomach.

"All that corn filled me up too much." Yang whined.

"Well you did almost eat all of them from the pile." Jaune said.

"Zip it." Yang said with narrowed eyes.

Jaune chuckled with a smile. Right now he was sitting on the large couch with his wife and kids around him. Ruby was sitting right next to him, in her PJs, resting her head against Jaune's shoulder, while Angel and Eon were sitting against their parents and Summer was in her mother's arms. A blue blanket with the symbol of a two golden crescent moons and a red rose under those crescents, the symbol of Lancaster, covering the entire family.

Angel yawned. Eon yawned as well.

"Wait, I'm not tired." Eon said, but his eyes were drooping.

"Sure looks like it." Angel said as her eyes drooped as well.

"I blame you for yawning." Eon said.

Angel yawned.

"I don't care." Angel said with a yawning voice.

"Stop it~." Eon whined before he yawned again.

Jaune chuckled with a smile, while Ruby smiled with a pair of eye smiles. Their children really did amuse them, and they love them for every bit of who they are.

"Well, not that this isn't exciting, but I'm heading back into town." Qrow said heading to the door.

"What's the matter, Qrow? Family time really tired you out? Not even the Grimm could do that." Jaune teased with a smile.

"Just the opposite. I still got enough energy to spare, that's why I'm off. I'm off to get in a little holiday festivities, my way!" Qrow said with a grin and thumbs up as he stopped at the door. "Happy Winter Harvest Day everybody. See you in the morning." Qrow said, still grinning as he went out the door.

Taiyang sighed as he got up from his seat. He walked over to the door to follow Qrow, but he heard extra footsteps making him turn to see Jaune.

"I can handle this." Taiyang said.

"You sure? It's Qrow. It's always good to have some backup." Jaune said.

"I've been dealing with that guy since I was seventeen. I'm more than enough to handle him." Taiyang said with pride and a big grin as he pressed his thumb onto his chest. "Just spend time with the family, Jaune." Taiyang said.

"You sure you don't need help? I mean Yang and I-" Jaune turned to Yang, only to see her already fast asleep, snoring pretty loudly. "Well, I could…" Taiyang placed a hand on his son-in-law's shoulder, making him turn to him, to see him gently smiling.

"It's okay. Spent time with your family. That's just what I'm going to do now too." Taiyang said with a smile. Jaune blinked his eyes. "I don't know if I ever told you this, but… I really am glad you married my daughter." Taiyang said gently smiling. Jaune's eyes went wide and blinked in surprise. "Keep taking good care of her, Jaune." Taiyang said smiling, patting Jaune's shoulder once more.

Jaune smiled to his father-in-law and nodded.

"I wouldn't want it any other way." Jaune said. Taiyang's smile widened. He then hugged Jaune surprising the Arc, but the younger blonde smiled and returned the hug, patting Taiyang's back.

The two separated, nodded once more and Taiyang left the cabin.

Taiyang found Qrow standing a bit away from the cabin, chugging his flask. He pulled it back and aimed it downward, shaking it to find all the liquor, I mean 'eggnog', was all gone. Qrow sighed with his arms slumping. He felt a hand on his back making him turn to see Taiyang.

"Mind a little company?" Taiyang asked with a smile.

"Not as long as you're buying." Qrow said with a smirk.

"Oh Qrow… I'd go broke then." Taiyang said, still smiling as he and Qrow headed back to town.

Back in the cabin, Jaune went back to the living room couch, returning to his original position. Ruby rested her head back onto his shoulder, making him smile. Angel and Eon shuffled a bit as they had their eyes closed, now going to sleep. Jaune looked down to his kids, then looked to Summer in her mother's arms, sleeping against her breast. Jaune's smile brightened. He wrapped his arm around Ruby bringing her closer.

He felt truly blessed to have his family and with his best friend, now wife and mother of his kids. He honestly can't imagine a life without them. He heard Yang move in her sleep, now sleeping with her legs spread out, a hand over her stuffed stomach and her head to the side with some drool coming from the side of her mouth. Jaune chuckled a bit. He couldn't imagine life without Yang as well. She was a pretty cool sister.

Zwei walked over to Yang in the recliner, crouched down shaking his bottom, then hopped onto Yang and now slept on her stomach. Yang wrapped her arm around the old corgi out of instinct.

Zwei was a good dog. Jaune hopes he sticks around for more years to come.

Jaune looked back to his family, to see them all with their eyes closed as they all rested. Jaune's smile widened and his eyes softened.

"I'm never letting go." He whispered.

Ruby's smile widened, hearing her husband's words.

Jaune closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth of his family; soothing him into a nice sleep.

The family now sitting on the couch, slept, happy with the perfect holiday day that was one for the memory books.

…

They never had another Winter Harvest Day together… but it was always remembered.

The End.

A small sweet and pretty bitter sweet holiday special fic. A small prequel to An Arc to the Past that I felt the need to write. The biggest aspect I love about the holidays is family, which is the most important thing in my code of life, but around the holidays it's just more special.

I hope you all enjoyed this small story and it gives you a bigger lust for life, especially around the holidays and strengthens your love for family even more.

I'm thinking of making a Thanksgiving special next year, but one holiday at a time.

This Takeshi1225 wishing you all a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, New Years and every important day to one's heart.

Thank you for Reading.

… Out.


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